Effects of long-term nicardipine treatment on hemodynamics of large arteries in essential hypertension.

The effects of the calcium-entry blocker nicardipine on brachial hemodynamics were studied in 22 patients (18 male, 4 female) with essential hypertension, who were treated with 20 mg tid for 1 year. Compliance, characteristic impedance, vascular resistances, and tangential tension were measured before treatment and after 1, 3, and 12 months of treatment by an automatic recording from a B-mode, high-resolution, real-time scanner and pulsed Doppler velocimetry for the calculation of the flow volume. We observed statistically significant variations in compliance and impedance after 1 month (3.21 +/- 0.59 dyn-1 cm4 10(-7) vs. 1.26 +/- 0.16 dyn-1 cm4 10(-7) and 50.6 +/- 4.7 dyn s cm-510(2) vs. 91.4 +/- 7.3 dyn s cm-5 10(2), respectively; mean +/- SEM; p less than 0.001), while tangential tension was significantly reduced after only 3 months (23.2 +/- 2.2 mmHg vs. 25.4 +/- 2.3 mmHg cm; p less than 0.05). The correlation between variations in mean blood pressure and in the hemodynamic parameters studied remained statistically significant throughout the study. Nicardipine improved the parameters of large-artery hemodynamics that favor a normal systolic pulse.