Amlodipine In The Management Of Hypertension

Abstract

Introduction :
Calcium Channel Blockers were discovered nearly three decades ago, but they are currently being widely used for the treatment of hypertension, ischaemic heart disease, and cardiac arrythmias.’ Majority of the members of first generation of calcium channel blockers have a short half life and have to be taken two or three times a day, although recently slow release preparations have been introd uced.

Material and Methods :

Fi ftythree were entered. tory, clinical bio-chemical patients suffering from hypertension Investigations included detail hise xamination, routine blood count, profile, X-ray (chest) and ECG all After first two weeks baseline assessment, patients were started on 5mg of amlodipine (except one patient started on 2.5mg) and remained on this dose for first 4 weeks of therapy after which the dose was increased to 10mg daily during followu p where necessary.

Discussion:

Amlodipine is effective for the control of blood pressure for twentyfour hours in a single dose which has been documented in the intra-arterial and cuff ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. This benefit provides greater protection against serious cardiovascular complications of hypertens ion which usually occur in the early hours of the morning.

Conclusion:
Amlodipine one of the new dihydropyridine was found to be effective for control of blood pressure in a single daily dose in majority of mild to moderate hypertensives