Effect of Nifedipine on Serum Lipoprotein Metabolism in Patients with Essential Hypertension

Abstract

Nifedipine is a calcium channel blocker that has been widely used for the treatment of hypertension (Olivari et al. 1979) and coronary artery disease (Henry 1980; Hugenholtz et al. 1981). Some antihypertensive agents have been shown to influence lipoprotein concentrations (Weidmann et al. 1985). Although some controversial data have been reported, prolonged use of chlorothiazide increases serum total cholesterol and serum triglyceride levels (Weidmann et al. 1985). β-Blockers increase triglyceride and decrease highdensity lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels (Weidmann et al. 1985). On the other hand, α₁-blockers decrease total cholesterol and triglyceride levels and increase HDL-C and the ratio of HDL to low-density liproprotein (Weidmann et al. 1985). However, the effect of calcium channel blockers on lipoprotein metabolism is unclear. Several studies showed no significant change in total cholesterol, triglyceride, and HDL-C with nifedipine (Pasanisi et al. 1986; Vessby et al. 1983; Weidmann et al.,1985) and verapamil (Faergeman et al. 1982; Lewis 1986; Walldius 1982) whereas others reported increased HDL-C with diltiazem (Pool et al. 1985) and nicardipine (Ishida et al. 1984).