Antihypertensive efficiency and safety of L-＆ N-type Ca^2＋ antagonists -ciinidipine

Objectives To evaluate antihypertensive efficiency and safety of a new domestic of L - & N - type Ca^2+ antagonist - eilnidipine with imidapril as a positive control. Methods After 2 weeks' placebo washingout, 22 patients were treated with eilnidipine 5 mg daily and 27 patients were treated with imidapril 5 mg daily. 4 weeks later, if patient's sitting diastolic blood pressure is over 90 mmHg, his/her dosage was doubled for another 4 weeks, the others measuring up remained their dosageunchanged for another 4 weeks. Blood pressure, heart rate, blood and urine routine examination, serum glucose, serum chemical examination including total cholesterol,triglyceride, HDL, LDL, transaminase, creatine etc and side reactions were recorded before and after the trial. Data were analyzed statistically. Results After 8 weeks' treatment, blood pressure was significantly decreased (P < 0. 05) in both groups, and the two medicines had similar antihypertensive effects. Furthermore, the reducing of heart rate was statistically significant compared with baseline (P < 0. 01) in the cilnidipine group, but not in the imidapril group. The negative chronotropic effect of cilnidipine had little effect on continuing the therapy. There were no changes on blood and urine routine examination and serum lipid, serum glucose, creatine, transaminase and etc in both groups. Their side reactions were mild and well -tolerated. Conclusions Cilnidipine has a con-vincing antihypertensive effect similar to that of imi-dapril. Especially cilnidipine may be administered to patients with relatively mild tachycardia.