A new class of agents has been made available for the treatment of hypertension. These calcium antagonists have rapid bioavailability and dramatic antihypertensive effects through reduction of total peripheral resistance and the vascular resistance of the major target organs of the body. These changes are usually associated with unchanged cardiac output, preserved organ blood flows, maintained ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Calcium antagonists play an important role in clinical practice. However, most of them have serious side effects. We have synthesized a series of novel calcium antagonists, quaternary ammonium salt derivatives of haloperidol with N-p-methoxybenzyl (X1), N-m-methoxybenzyl (X2) and N-o-methoxybenzyl (X3) groups. The objective of this study was to investigate the bioactivity...

Recently, attention has focussed on the effects of calcium antagonists on renal function. When administered in vitro to the isolated perfused kidney, calcium antagonists exhibit consistent actions permitting characterization of their renal hemodynamic effects. Calcium antagonists do not affect the vascular tone of the vasodilated isolated perfused kidney, but they do dramatically reverse the re...

In the last 2 years there has been considerable controversy over the safety of certain calcium antagonists. This article discusses recent drug developments, summarizes the publications that sparked the controversy, highlights results of the l latest trials of calcium antagonists and considers the range of clinical conditions in which calcium antagonists may play a useful role.

OBJECTIVES We sought to estimate the risk of death and recurrent myocardial infarction associated with the use of calcium antagonists after myocardial infarction in a population-based cohort study. BACKGROUND Calcium antagonists are commonly prescribed after myocardial infarction, but their long-term effects are not well established. METHODS Patients 25 to 69 years old with a suspected myoc...

There is growing evidence indicating that neuronal calcium channels play an important role in the mechanism of morphine dependence. In this study, the effects of acute and chronic administration of nitrendipine on naloxone precipitated morphine withdrawal signs were investigated. Mice were rendered dependent to morphine by subcutaneous injection of morphine over a period of 5 days. In chronic s...

We read with interest the editorial by Staessen et al., which discusses very objectively the position of calcium antagonists in the treatment of hypertension. As scientists who are familiar with calcium antagonists both in daily practice and pre-clinical experiments, we have had difficulty in accepting negative clinical trial results on the use of calcium antagonists in hypertension. We use cal...