Evaluation of antihypertensive effects of once-a-day isradipine and fosinopril: a double-blind crossover study by means of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.

We compared the efficacy and tolerability of isradipine (ISR) and fosinopril (FOS) once-a-day administration in 17 outpatients, 9 men and 8 women, aged 35-65 years (mean +/- SD = 58 +/- 10 years), affected by mild to moderate primary systemic hypertension. The patients were given single-blind placebo for 2 weeks and thereafter, in double-blind, randomized, crossover sequence, ISR (5 mg) and FOS (20 mg), both for 4 weeks. At the end of each period, patients underwent 24-h noninvasive blood pressure (BP) monitoring by means of an A&D TM 2420 Monitor Model 7, with readings taken very 10 min during the day (from 7 A.M. to 11 P.M.), and every 20 min during the night (from 11 P.M. to 7 A.M.) Similarly, BP load (BPL) as percentage of systolic and diastolic BP reading > 140 and > 90 mmHg was investigated. Both ISR and FOS induced a highly significant (p < 0.0001) decrease in BP from 158/96 +/- 7/6 mmHg to 133/86 +/- 6/6 and to 132/83 +/- 10/7 mmHg, respectively. Mean BP decreased from 117 +/- 6 mmHg to 102 +/- 6 mmHg (ISR) (p < 0.0001) and to 99 +/- 8 mmHg (FOS) (p < 0.0001). Both ISR and FOS significantly (p < 0.0001) reduced systolic BPL from 78 +/- 16% to 44 +/- 13% and 28 +/- 12%, respectively, and diastolic BPL from 70 +/- 15% to 40 +/- 13% (p < 0.0001) and 35 +/- 13% (p < 0.0001), respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)