The initial hemodynamic response to newer antihypertensive agents at rest and during exercise: review of visacor, doxazosin, nisoldipine, tiapamil, perindoprilat, pinacidil, dilevalol, and carvedilol.

Antihypertensive drugs may lower blood pressure through very different mechanisms, initially as well as during chronic use. This article is a review of the immediate hemodynamic changes induced by a beta blocker (visacor), an alpha-receptor blocker (doxazosin), two calcium antagonists (tiapamil and nisoldipine), an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (perindoprilat), two double-acting compounds (dilevalol and carvedilol), and placebo studied in 126 patients with mild to moderately severe essential hypertension. The patient populations of the different treatment groups were comparable. The invasive hemodynamic technique, including intraarterial blood pressure (BP) recording and measurements of cardiac output by cardiogreen, was the same in all studies. All antihypertensive compounds examined induced a rapid reduction in blood pressure both at rest and during exercise, while no significant changes occurred in the placebo group. This review shows the scope of hemodynamic responses, ranging from peripheral vasodilation to a reduction of heart rate and blood flow. Furthermore, different counterregulatory effects blunting the immediate BP reduction are demonstrated.