Calhoun DA
Muscle sympathetic nerve activity response to chronic
felodipine therapy
11th Scientific Meeting, American Society of Hypertension
Am J Hypert
(Apr) 9:149A 1996
Short acting dihydropyridine class calcium channel blockers have been a
subject of intense interest after epidemiologic reports suggested an
increased cardiovascular mortality associated with their use.
Suspecting that a reflex increase in sympathetic nervous system
activation with its manifest adverse cardiovascular sequale may be the
proximate cause of such a phenomenon, this investigator set out to
examine the effect of the long acting calcium channel blocker felodipine
and its effect on peroneal nerve sympathetic traffic using
microneurography in vivo.
Thirteen hypertensives were off all blood
pressure medications for at least two weeks before being randomized to
either 5 mg/day of felodipine (n=7) or placebo (n=6) in a single blinded
manner. Mean arterial blood pressure was clearly lower by about 10
mmHg in the treatment group but neither heart rate nor muscle
sympathetic nerve activity was increased (30+/-15 bursts/minute in
treated vs. 21+/- in placebo).
These results provide a reassuring bit of
basic science information to those of us treating our patients with long
acting CCBs for hypertension. (Sri Narsipur, MD, SUNY-HSC at Syracuse,
NY)
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11th Scientific Meeting, American Society of Hypertension
H: Pathophysiology :
Sympathetic nervous system
H: Drug therapy :
Calcium channel blockers