Ankle Edema Formation during Treatment with the Calcium Channel Blockers Lacidipine and Amlodipine: A Single-centre Study

All studies suggesting a lower incidence of edema on lacidipine than on amlodipine are based on subjective scoring. Therefore, we have compared edema formation on two dihydropyridine calcium channel blockers, using an accurate method for quantitative assessment of foot volume. In a randomized study, we treated 62 patients with essential hypertension for 12 weeks starting with either lacidipine 4 mg o.d. (n = 30) or amlodipine 5 mg o.d. (n = 32). At 6 weeks, the doses were increased to that maximally allowed (lacidipine 6 mg, n = 18; amlodipine 10 mg, n = 12) if trough diastolic blood pressure response was insufficient (>90 mmHg and decrease