Haemodynamic effects of intravenous nicardipine during upright exercise in patients with stable angina pectoris.

The immediate haemodynamic effects, at rest and during exercise, of 2.5 and 10mg intravenous nicardipine were measured in 20 male patients with uncomplicated angina pectoris due to angiographically confirmed coronary artery disease. At rest, both doses of nicardipine resulted in reductions in the systemic arterial pressure and vascular resistance and increases in heart rate and cardiac output. The changes were greater after the larger than after the smaller dose of nicardipine. During exercise, neither dose of nicardipine resulted in a substantial change in the haemodynamic profile, except that after the larger dose heart rate and cardiac output were higher than in the control study. These results indicate that the major overall haemodynamic effect of intravenous nicardipine is dilatation of the systemic arteriolar resistance vessels associated with reflex increase in cardiac pumping activity.