Habib Aslam Gaba, Nazeer Memon, Luqman All, Khan Shah Zaman, Ejaz Zaidi, S Shahid Hussain.
An Open Non Comparative Multicentre Study of Efficacy and Toleration of Am1odipine in the treatment of Mild to Moderate Essential Hypertension in General Clinical Practice.
Med Channel Jan ;4(1):23-30.

It was an open non comparative study which was carried out at five different centres with the objective to evaluate the efficacy and toleration of Amlodipine in the treatment of mild to moderate hypertension in general clinical practice. In this multicentre study out of 125 patients enrolled 100 patients were evaluable. The study included adults over 21 years of age (mean age 49.8 years) who were diagnosed or had history of mild to moderate hypertension and had already been taking antihypertensive drugs but were not adequately controlled. Hypertension was defined as diastolic blood pressure in the range of 95 - 114 mmHg in the sitting position documented on two different occasions separated by at least 5 days. Amlodipine 5 mg daily was given for at least first two weeks. The daily dose was titrated upward, after two weeks, in those patients who did not show satisfactory reduction in blood pressure till clinically significant side effects, thought to be drug related occurred. Out of 100 patients who were evaluable 2 were withdraw from the study, one after 2 weeks and the other after 5 weeks, due to side effects. After 6 weeks of treatment, the reduction in systolic blood pressure was 37 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure 20 mmHg. Seventy six of these patients required 5 mg while remaining 22 needed 10 mg of amlodipine. Patients did not show any significant change in heart rate at the end of the study. Overall assessment of efficacy was excellent in 78%, good in 20% and fair in remaining 2%. As far as toleration was concerned, it was excellent in 80% good in 16% fair in 1 % and poor in 3%. Eleven of 100 (11 9,o) patients experienced adverse effects and 2 (2%) were withdrawn from the study due to adverse effects.

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