Studies on the therapeutic effect of barnidipine hydrochloride on to the elderly patients of essential hypertension / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare and assess the antihypertentive efficacy and safety of barnidipine hydrochloride and felodipine in the elderly hypertentive patients. Methods 69 elderly patients(60-75 years old ) with mild or moderate essential hypertension were selected and randomly assigned to two groups, one was medicated with barnidipine (36 patients) and another (33 patients) with felodipine. Placeboes were given for 2 weeks, then the testees were administered barnidipine 10mg/d or felodipine 5mg/d for 2 weeks, followed by an increased administration of dose titration to barnidipine 15mg/d or felodipine 10mg/d for another 2 weeks in those patients with DBP≥90mmHg. Both groups were administered once daily. Results After 4 weeks administration no statistical difference was found on the total effectiveness between barnidipine and felodipine groups (100.0% vs 93.9%). Both SBP and DBP declined by 20.7?7.8mmHg and 17.6?4.5mmHg respectively in barnidipine group, and 20.2?9.6mmHg and 17.6?6.1mmHg respectively in felodipine group. The decline of blood pressure showed no significant difference between the two groups. The mild harmful respond occurred in 4 of 36 patients of barnidipine group (11.1%), and in 3 of 33 patients of felodipine group(9.1%).Conclusion The results suggested that barnidipine is effective and well tolerated in antihypertension of the old patients.