Sitaxsentan for Treatment of Pulmonary Hypertension

Objective:To review the literature pertinent to the efficacy and safety of sitaxsentan, a selective endothelin (ET)-A receptor antagonist under evaluation for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).Data Sources:Articles were identified through searches of the MEDLINE (1966–November 2006) and International Pharmaceutical Abstracts (1970–November 2006) databases, using the key words endothelin antagonist, pulmonary arterial hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, sitaxsentan, and TBC11251. Searches were limited to articles published in English.Study Selection And Data Extraction:Due to the limited number of articles on sitaxsentan, all studies captured in the search results were evaluated.Data Synthesis:Four studies of sitaxsentan in humans with PAH have been published to date. An uncontrolled open-label study and a randomized placebo-controlled study (STRIDE-1; Sitaxsentan to Relieve Impaired Exercise-1) showed sitaxsentan to improve exercise tolerance in patients with PAH, as evidenced by si...