Twenty-four-hour blood pressure control with isradipine in mild essential hypertension

The hypotensive effect of isradipine was assessed in 26 male patients, aged 40 to 64 years, with hyper­tension. After withdrawal of previous antihyper­tensive treatment and a four-week placebo period, patients were randomized into a double-blind ac­tive-treatment period of eight weeks to receive ei­ther placebo or 1.25 to 2.5 mg isradipine twice daily. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure was measured by Accutracker (Suntech, Oxford, England) after the placebo period and at the end of the active-treatment period. In the isradipine group n = 13), both systolic and diastolic blood pressure and number of blood pressure spikes decreased sig­nificantly (P <.0001), whereas there was a signifi­cant increase of these variables in the placebo con­trol group (n = 13). The results of this study indicate that, in these subjects, blood pressure control was achieved throughout the 24-h period by mono­therapy with isradipine. Am J Hypertens 1991;4:161S-162S.