Effects of oral enalapril and verapamil on dialysis adequacy and solute clearance in chronic ambulatory peritoneal dialysis

Abstract

Peritoneal dialysis offers several advantages such as better clearance of intermediate/large molecules and better preservation of renal residual function when compared with hemodialysis. However, dialysis adequacy is one of the subjects of concern of this modality. There are some drugs that are capable of influencing solute transport in the peritoneum, such as acetyle co-enzyme inhibitors (ACE-I) medications and calcium channel blockers. Captopril and Verapamil are often mentioned, but their use has shown varying conclusions and initial studies were performed with the intra-peritoneal administration of these drugs and there are only a few studies on the effect of the oral administration of these drugs. This study was undertaken with the aim to evaluate the effects of oral administration of Verapamil and Enalapril among continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) patients. The results of this study showed that Verapamil and Enalapril do not have any effects on glucose, creatinine, sodium, potassium and urea clearance (during the 4-h peritoneal equilibration test (PET) test). However, it was shown that Enalapril significantly increased the peritoneal urea Kt/V and caused a meaningful decrease in the diastolic and mean blood pressures. Therefore, we feel that Enalapril may be administered as an anti-hypertensive medication of choice in CAPD patients, which can also result in better dialysis adequacy. However, further studies with larger sample sizes are needed in the future.