Combination therapy with renin-angiotensin system blockers: will amlodipine replace hydrochlorothiazide?

Amlodipine is a highly effective and safe antihypertensive dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker. It is even more effective when used in combination with other antihypertensive medications, including hydrochlorothiazide. When antihypertensive calcium channel blockers were first introduced, evidence in the laboratory that they had some natriuretic properties was adduced to suggest that they would be "the diuretics of the 1990s." This turned out not to be the case. Because of its clinical efficacy, amlodipine is frequently used in fixed-dose combination products, but it is not likely to replace hydrochlorothiazide.