Objectives: To compare 24 h ambulatory blood pressure and trough office blood pressure lowerings after 8 weeks of therapy with 75 mg irbesartan once a day, 150 mg irbesartan once a day , and 75 mg irbesartan twice a day versus placebo; and to assess safety and tolerability of irbesartan therapy.
Design: Multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
Setting: Sixteen centers in Italy.
Objective: To evaluate the antihypertensive effect of nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system and retard in terms of trough:peak ratio efficacy.
Methods: According to a double-blind, randomized, crossover design, 58 patients with mild-to-moderate essential hypertension, after 1 month placebo washout, received 30 mg/day nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system, 20 mg nifedipine retard twice a day and the corresponding placebos for 1 month. At the end of each treatment period, blood pressure was measured by using a mercury sphygmomanometer at trough and 1, 2, 3 and 4 h after the last dosing.