Urapidil in hypercholesterolemic hypertensive patients

The association of arterial hypertension and hyperlipidemia strikingly enhances prevalence, incidence and mortality of cardiovascular disease. In the light of recent evidence that some antihypertensive drugs with alpha-1 blocking properties reduce blood pressure (BP) and total cholesterol (chol), increasing chol content in the non-atherogenic high density lipoproteins (HDL-chol), the effects of urapidil, a peripheral alpha-1 adrenoceptor antagonist, with a central action component on BP and plasma lipids were evaluated in 49 mild, hypertensive patients with mild to moderately severe hypercholesterolemia (serum chol 220-320 mg/dl) for a 6 month period in a double-blind randomized study versus placebo. Five out of the 49 patients (3 on urapidil, 2 on placebo) discontinued treatment due to adverse side effects. Five patients on placebo did not meet protocol requirement of serum triglycerides < 350 mg/dl (3.95 mmol/L) and were only included in the BP efficacy assessment. The groups of urapidil and placebo were comparable for age (50 +/- 10 vs 49 +/- 7 years), body weight (72 +/- 9 vs 73 +/- 10 kg), sex (18M, 8F vs 14M, 9F) and mean arterial pressure (119.4 +/- 4 vs 119.7 +/- 4 mmHg). The actively treated group significantly decrease BP values from 159/99 +/- 13/2 to 152/90 +/- 23/8 mmHg, whilst no change was observed in the placebo group. Between group analysis showed a significant difference at the end of treatment (p < 0.05)