Effect of cilnidipine on normal to marginally elevated urine albumin-creatinine ratio in asymptomatic non-diabetic hypertensive patients: an exponential decay curve analysis.

BACKGROUND: High-normal urinary albumin excretion has been reported to have clinical significance with respect to progression of proteinuria and hypertension.
OBJECTIVE: We analysed the effect of cilnidipine (10 mg/day) on morning systolic blood pressure (SBP) and urine albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR) in 16 non-diabetic hypertensive patients with a normal to marginally elevated UACR (mean +/- SD 29.4 +/- 21.7; range 7.5-72.9 mg/g creatinine).
METHODS: Sequential home BP and UACR data were fitted to a simple exponential function as follows: where y is SBP (mmHg) or UACR (mg/g creatinine); alpha is the extent of the SBP (mmHg)- or UACR (mg/g creatinine)-lowering effect; beta (days) is the time-constant for SBP or UACR decrease; t is the number of days after the start of cilnidipine administration; and gamma is the finally stabilized SBP (mmHg) or UACR (mg/g creatinine).
RESULTS: Mean +/- SD morning SBP and UACR decreased by 20.4 +/- 11.4 mmHg and 15.2 +/- 13.1 mg/g creatinine, respectively, as determined by coefficient alpha. The mean +/- SD time-constant for UACR decrease was significantly longer than that for BP decrease (43.5 +/- 22.9 vs 15.4 +/- 7.1 days). UACR reduction correlated with pre-treatment UACR values (correlation coefficient [R] = 0.88, p < 0.01) but not with BP decrease.
CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrated that cilnidipine reduced UACR in hypertensive patients with normal to marginally elevated UACR independent of its BP-lowering effect.