Large arteries in hypertension: acute effects of a new calcium entry blocker, nitrendipine

Acute effects of a new calcium entry blocker, nitrendipine, on large arteries of the forearm were studied by using arterial pulse strain gauge mecanography and pulsed Doppler velocimetry of the brachial artery in 13 mild to moderate essential hypertensive patients. Ninety minutes after nitrendipine ingestion, patients exhibited significant decreases in blood pressure without changes in heart rate; increases in brachial artery diameter and decreases in brachial to radial pulse wave velocity; increases in arterial compliance and decreases in characteristic impedance; and increases in brachial artery blood velocity and flow and decreases in forearm vascular resistance. Lastly, amplitude of pulse pressure was decreased by nitrendipine and negatively correlated to the level of arterial compliance. These results suggest that nitrendipine exerts a direct benefit effect on the hypertensive large arteries whose two main consequences are a decrease in pulsatility of arterial pressure and an increase in arterial flow.