Renal effects of nitrendipine.

Calcium-entry blockers exert several characteristic effects on the kidney that potentiate their antihypertensive effect. Long-term therapy with nitrendipine, a dihydropyridine derivative, lowers blood pressure while maintaining renal hemodynamics within limits similar to pretreatment values in essential hypertension with normal renal function. This is accompanied by a persistent natriuretic effect that probably facilitates its antihypertensive action and is not followed by changes of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Preliminary data also seem to indicate that nitrendipine could be safely used in patients with arterial hypertension and chronic renal failure.