Clinical pharmacology of pindolol

Beta-adrenoceptor blockade is responsible for the therapeutic action of beta-adrenoceptor-blocking drugs in the treatment of hypertension and angina pectoris. Many aspects of their effects can therefore be studied in relatively simple clinical pharmacologic experiments. Cardiac beta-adrenoceptor blockade can be measured in terms of the reduction of isoprenaline-induced and exercise-induced tachycardia. Based on these experimental procedures pindolol is, on a weight-for-weight basis, about 20 times more potent than propranolol. The duration of action of pindolol, measured by the reduction in exercise-induced tachycardia, is longer than that of many other beta-adrenoceptor-blocking drugs such as propranolol, alprenolol, and slow-release oxprenolol tested at equipotent beta-adrenoceptor-blocking doses. Pindolol is a beta-adrenoceptor-blocking drug with partial agonist activity (intrinsic sympathomimetic activity [ISA]). Drugs of this type are as effective in inhibiting beta-adrenoceptor stimulation as drugs devoid of this property, but unlike the latter they produce some stimulation of beta adrenoceptors. The ISA of pindolol is sufficient to counterbalance the diminution in resting sympathetic tone that results from beta-adrenoceptor blockade. In hemodynamic studies pindolol does not alter or only slightly reduces normal cardiac output. This is in contrast to drugs lacking ISA, which consistently depress cardiac output. In addition, propranolol has been shown to markedly reduce blood flow in the calf, whereas pindolol and placebo do not differ from one another in their effect on this parameter. A linear correlation exists between the logarithm of plasma concentrations of pindolol and cardiac beta-adrenoceptor blockade expressed as a reduction of exercise-induced tachycardia. The high systemic availability of pindolol after oral administration, due to good oral absorption and low first-pass effect, is revealed not only in pharmacokinetic studies but also in pharmacodynamic experiments; beta-adrenoceptor blockade 75 minutes after intravenous administration was equivalent to that observed 2 hours after the same doses given orally.