FELODIPINE THERAPY MAY NOT ALTER GLUCOSE AND LIPID-METABOLISM IN HYPERTENSIVES

The effects of long-term monotherapy with felodipine, a calcium antago nist, on blood pressure, glucose tolerance, and serum lipid profiles w ere prospectively investigated in 51 hypertensive patients: 13 with no rmal glucose tolerance and 38 with glucose intolerance. The levels of plasma glucose, serum lipids, and glycosylated hemoglobin A(1c) were d etermined before and during long-term (7.5+/-0.5 months; range, 6 to 9 months) therapy with felodipine. A 75-g oral glucose tolerance test w as performed before and during long-term felodipine therapy. Significa nt decreases in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures in both pa tient groups were maintained during the therapy. Neither fasting nor p ost-glucose load venous plasma glucose levels were altered in either g roup of patients, and no patients with normal glucose tolerance develo ped diabetes mellitus during the study. Serum lipid levels did not cha nge significantly in either group of patients except for significant d ecreases in high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and apolipoprotein A- I in the group with normal glucose tolerance tests, but those changes remained within the normal range. Furthermore, neither serum lipid nor apolipoprotein levels were altered, even in patients with hypercholes terolemia (total cholesterol levels, >5.69 mmol/L=220 mg/dL). These re sults suggest that long-term therapy with felodipine may not alter glu cose and lipid metabolism in hypertensive patients, and felodipine app ears to be useful as an antihypertensive agent for hypertensive patien ts with either dyslipidemia or impaired glucose metabolism.