The Med List: ACE Inhibitors

Today I’m starting a new series called The Med List. Once or twice a month, I’d like take a closer look at a single class of home medications and explore the medical implications for our patients who take these meds.

The patient’s medications list holds a wealth of information. Prescribed medications tell us about the patient’s medical history. They also give us clues to the patient’s possible current condition and presentation. Some medicines can better explain the clinical picture in front of us and others can be red flags regarding treatment options and the patients likely response.

Let’s kick off by looking a little closer at a class of medicines called Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors. These meds are more commonly called ACE Inhibitors. Everyone calls ACE inhibitors ACE inhibitors in much the same way that  everyone calls International Business Machines IBM and everyone calls American Telephone and Telegraph AT&T.

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Are All Aspirin Created Equal?

“I took an Aspirin when I started feeling the pain.”

Close to a decade after the Aspirin for chest pain idea hit the main-stream, more and more folks are medicated themselves at the onset of chest pain. But are all Aspirin created equal? Does chewing make any difference in the rate of absorption?

No … and yes.

A recent study out of the University of California, San Diego took 14 healthy volunteers and feed them a moderate dose of Aspirin on three separate occasions. First they were asked to swallow adult size tablets, then they were asked to chew adult sized tablets and last they were asked to chew children’s chewable Aspirin tablets. After each administration the volunteers had blood drawn at set intervals. The results were predictable, but telling. After swallowing the adult tablets, 6 of the 14 volunteers had no detectable levelsof Aspirin in their system 45 minutes post swallow.

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