Replacement of Amlodipine and Lercanidipine by Barnidipine: Tolerability and Effectiveness in a Real-Life Study.

INTRODUCTION

Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease worldwide. Calcium channel blockers are an effective antihypertensive treatment, but frequently hypertension remains uncontrolled for many patients, partly due to tolerability issues.

AIM

To assess the tolerability and effectiveness of barnidipine in mild to moderate hypertension patients switching treatment from other calcium channel blockers in daily practice.

METHODS

BASIC-HT, a prospective real life study, enrolled 20,479 hypertensive patients initiating barnidipine treatment. The present paper focuses on a subgroup of patients in BASIC-HT for whom the previous treatment with amlodipine or lercanidipine was replaced by barnidipine. Tolerability and effectiveness of barnidipine in these patients were assessed at two visits during a 3-month follow up.

RESULTS

In 1710 mild to moderate hypertension patients switching treatment from amlodipine or lercanidipine to barnidipine monotherapy or in combination with other antihypertensive drug classes, mean blood pressure decreased during 3-month follow-up. The mean systolic blood pressure decreased from 153.15 mmHg [95% CI 152.35-153.95] at baseline to 139.20 mmHg [95% CI 138.58-139.82] at visit 3, after 3 months. The mean diastolic blood pressure decreased from 88.85 mmHg at baseline [95% CI 88.36-89.34], to 81.56 mmHg [95% CI 81.20-81.91] at visit 3. Among these patients, 65.4% replaced their initial calcium channel blocker treatment to barnidipine for tolerability reasons. During the follow-up, the main adverse event reported was edema (4.8%). The nature and frequency of events reported in this subgroup of switcher patients were in line with those reported by the total population in BASIC-HT.

CONCLUSION

This real-life study suggests that replacement of other calcium channel blockers with barnidipine is a valuable therapeutic option, especially when tolerability is an issue.