Treatment of mild hypertension with urapidil or captopril

The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy (lowering diastolic blood pressure to 90 mm Hg or less) of urapidil, a postsynaptic alpha-blocker with central action with that of captopril in a randomized, double-blind, multicenter study. Two hundred ninety-five essential hypertensives (WHO I/II) (140 male, 155 female, age 56-60 years) were treated for 12 weeks with either 30 to 90 mg urapidil bid or 12.5 to 50 mg captopril bid. Supine blood pressure values (mmHg, mean +/- SD) at the end of the 12-week treatment dropped for the urapidil group (n = 142) from 175/103 +/- 19/6 to 154/89 +/- 17/9 (P less than 0.001), and in the captopril group (n = 153) from 175/103 +/- 19/6 to 154/90 +/- 19/9 (P less than 0.001), corresponding to 62% urapidil and 58% captopril responder rates. The results demonstrate that the two antihypertensive medications with different modes of action control blood pressure with equal efficacy at three dose levels. A dose decrease was possible in 20% of each group, but a dose increase was necessary in 39% of urapidil and 44% of captopril group.