Safety Study of Lisinopril in Children and Adolescents With a Kidney Transplant

The drug lisinopril is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of high blood pressure, heart failure, and acute heart attacks in adult patients. In children over 6 years of age, lisinopril is approved for the treatment of high blood pressure. Lisinopril is in a group of medications called angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE). ACE inhibitors such as lisinopril work by decreasing certain chemicals that tighten the blood vessels so blood flows more smoothly and the heart can pump blood more efficiently. There is some information available about how children with high blood pressure absorb, distribute, metabolize, and eliminate lisinopril (this information about medication processing by the body is called pharmacokinetic data). However, there is no information about how children with high blood pressure who have received a kidney transplant process lisinopril. In addition to decreasing blood pressure, investigators believe that lisinopril may help kidney transplants work longer by reducing the activity of chemicals made by cells in kidney transplants that can lead to inflammation and injury. Such benefits have not been found with another group of blood pressure medications called calcium channel blockers, which are the most commonly used medication group to control high blood pressure in children after a kidney transplant. A clinical trial will be conducted in the future to compare which medication group helps kidney transplants in children last longer. To guide the selection of the best dose to test in future studies, investigators in this study will try to determine the safety profile, dose tolerability, and pharmacokinetics of lisinopril in children and adolescents (2-17 years of age) who have received a kidney transplant and have high blood pressure.