Effect of the Long-Term Therapy with Felodipine(Munobal?) in Patients with Essential Hypertension : With Reference to Persistence of Its Antihypertensive Effect and Safety

摘要

Background Hypertension is a major and growing public health problem and it calls for life-long management. The antihypertensive agents are still playing major roles in the management of hypertension. We studied the effect of the long-term therapy with a new calcium channel blocker, felodipine in patients with essential hypertension. Methods We recruited 31 patients with mild to moderate essential hypertention and gave them 5mg (1 tablet) of felodipine(Munobal?) once daily for 12 months. We measured the blood pressure and the heart rate every month and tried to detect any untoward symptoms and signs during the whole observation period. Baseline work-up for the hypertensive patients were done as usual before and after the study. Results The average systolic and diastolic blood pressures were 162.7±9.7/99.6±7.4mmHg respectively before the administration and they came down to the level of 139.7±15.0/87.3±8.6mmHg respectively at the end of the 1st month (p Conclusion Felodipine has good and persistent hypotensive effect and it is safe and easy to use.