Effects of lercanidipine hydrochloride versus felodipine sustained-release on day-to-day home blood pressure variability.

OBJECTIVE

The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of lercanidipine with felodipine in patients with mild-to-moderate hypertension on day-to-day home blood pressure variability.

METHODS

This is a sub-study of a multicenter, randomized, open-label, parallel group and active controlled clinical trial. Hypertensive patients aged 18-75 (i.e. diastolic blood pressure ≥90 mmHg and <110 mmHg; systolic blood pressure ≥140 mmHg and <180 mmHg) and 24 h mean BP >130/80 mmHg) were eligible for this study. During the study, blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) were recorded. The day-to-day BP variability (BPV) and HR variability (HRV) were obtained by the standard deviation (SD) of daily BP/HR average (of six readings) in 7 days.

RESULTS

There were 186 patients (89 and 97 patients in the lercanidipine and felodipine groups, respectively) included in this study. Lercanidipine hydrochloride 10 mg/d and felodipine sustained-release tablets 5 mg/d were given to their respective groups. After 6 weeks of treatment, SD of home BP significantly reduced compared with baseline in both groups (P < .05) while SD of home HR also changed significantly after treatment (P < .05). There was no significant difference in SD of home BPV between the lercanidipine and felodipine groups after treatment.

CONCLUSION

Treatment with lercanidipine and felodipine both resulted in reduction of BPV and HRV. There was no significant inter-group difference in reduction of BPV between the groups. Lercanidipine is an effective antihypertensive drug in improving BPV. National clinical trial: NCT01520285.