Single-Dose Sublingual Nifedipine as the Only Treatment in Hypertensive Urgencies and Emergencies

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Abstract
One hundred and eighteen patients with hypertensive urgencies and emer gencies and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) at least 120 mm Hg by the cuff method were seen at the Emergency Care Department; none had received calcium chan nel blockers during the previous twelve hours. Patients with DBP of 120 to 139 mm Hg received 10 mg of sublingual nifedi pine; patients with left ventricular hypertrophy or failure, renal disease, hyper tensive encephalopathy, angina, papilledema, or a DBP over 140 mm Hg received 20 mg of the drug. The criterion for control was the achievement of a DBP of 100 mm Hg or less within sixty minutes of receiving sublingual nifedipine and maintenance of the effect until discharge. Control was achieved in all patients; a sixty-three-year-old man died of a brain hemorrhage after pulmonary edema and a DBP of 210 had been controlled; the other 117 were discharged to their attending physicians, either as outpatients or to a hospital ward. No patient developed hypotension, clinical or electrocardio graphic signs of myocardial ischemia, or clinical signs of neurologic dysfunction. Practical, fast, safe, and dependable control of hypertensive urgencies and emergencies has made sublingual nifedipine the treatment of choice of such pa tients in the Emergency Care Department.