The lowering of daytime blood pressures with a single daily dose of acebutolol in ambulant hypertensives.

Intra-arterial blood pressure recordings were studied in 10 ambulant subjects with essential hypertension to evaluate the effect of a single daily dose of acebutolol. Blood pressures and heart rates, measured on a beat-to-beat basis were averaged over every hour, for the daytime, night-time, and for the total 24 hours. Acebutolol significantly lowered the average daytime systolic pressure (160 to 142 mmHg, p = less than 0.01), diastolic pressure (78 to 66 mmHg, p = less than 0.01), and the heart rate (92 to 77 beats/min, p = less than 0.001). Significantly lower pressures were demonstrated up to 11 hours after the last dose of acebutolol. The effect on heart rate lasted up to 13 hours. The observed lowering of pressures and heart rate during the remaining 11 hours did not reach statistical significance.