A multicenter comparison of isradipine and prazosin for treatment of essential hypertension

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Abstract
Isradipine is a dihydropyridine calcium-entry blocking agent with pronounced vasodilator activity and no significant cardiac effects at clinical doses, a desirable profile for an antihypertensive drug. Prazosin, a post-junctional alpha-adrenoceptor blocking agent, may produce a similar hemodynamic pattern. Therefore, we compared the effects of isradipine (2.5–10 mg bid) with those of prazosin (2–8 mg bid) in 83 patients with established essential hypertension, using a randomized, double-blind, parallel-group design. Patients received a placebo for 3–5 weeks, then either isradipine or prazosin over a 6-week titration period, followed by a 4-week plateau phase. During the plateau period, isradipine therapy lowered sitting blood pressure more effectively than did the administration of prazosin: Mean systolic BP fell 16.7 versus 8.1 mmHg (p<0.001) and mean diastolic BP was reduced 15.6 versus 12.6 mmHg (p<0.01). In the dosing range used (while also noting that prazosin is occasionally titrated up to doses of 30 mg qd), 83% of isradipine-treated patients had at least a 10 mmHg reduction in diastolic BP, compared with 64% of prazosin-treated patients (p=0.05. FET), Tachyphylaxis did not occur with either drug. The rate of occurrence of side effects was similar in both treatment groups; the most common adverse event seen with isradipine was headache (20%) and with prazosin, dizziness (19%).