Clinical Research Studies

Atherosclerotic disease, or hardening of the arteries, is characterized by the thickening of the arterial walls due to fatty deposits in wall and inflammation in the wall of arteries. High cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and genetics play an important role in developing clinical symptoms of atherosclerosis disease. The complications of advanced atherosclerosis are chronic, slowly progressive and cumulative, resulting in heart attack, stroke and/or death and blockage of arteries. This study is being done to assess the effectiveness of spironolactone therapy to slow down the worsening of atherosclerotic disease (hardening of the arteries) in aorta (this is a large vessel coming out of your heart) compared to placebo (look alike sugar pill). This will be checked by comparing before and after therapy magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pictures of the aortic wall. Spironolactone is an FDA approved drug used to treat heart failure and in the management of hypertension (high blood pressure), but in this study it is used for another unapproved reason.