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Title: Lercandipine Effective in Treating Hypertension in Patients With Chronic Kidney Failure: Presented at ASH(HYP)

"Lercandipine Effective in Treating Hypertension in Patients With Chronic Kidney Failure: Presented at ASH(HYP)"

By Ed Susman NEW YORK, NY -- May 21, 2003 -- The new calcium channel blocker lercandipine is effective in treating patients with high blood pressure (BP) who are also experiencing chronic renal failure, researchers reported on May 15th here at the 18th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Society of Hypertension. Joan Ocom, MD, chief of the hypertension unit, Fundacion Puigvert, Barcelona, Spain, said patients treated with lercandipine, which is approved for use in Europe, also showed improvement in kidney function, with a decrease in proteinuria from 3.5 g at baseline to 2.8 g at the end of the 6-month trial (P=0.015). "Lercandipine has a good tolerability profile, and showed an interesting effect on plasmatic lipids, " he said at his poster presentation. Dr. Ocom recruited 175 patients to the study. The average age was 63; 52.9% were men. Almost 90% of patients showed an improvement in BP, and 58% of patients achieved a BP reduction to a goal of less than 130/85 mm Hg. The study was designed to determine whether lercandipine would be helpful in patients who have salt retention and edema. "A large part of the calcium channel blockers are eliminated through the liver, and require only a small dose adjustment in [patients with] chronic renal failure," Dr. Ocom noted. Audience members raised questions about whether lercandipine would affect other factors in renal failure, but, he said, "an improvement in renal function, measured through creatinine clearance, was detected." Seventy-eight percent of patients treated with lercandipine achieved at least a 10/10 mm Hg decrease in BP; 82% achieved a 10/5 mm Hg reduction in BP. This study was sponsored by Recordati S.p.A. of Milan, Italy. [Study title: Lercandipine in Chronic Renal Failure (CRF). Abstract P-168]

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