Prazosin Hydrochloride (CP-12,299-1), An Oral Anti-Hypertensive Agent:

Preliminary Clinical Observations in Ambulatory Patients

¹ Elizabeth General Hospital and Dispensary; New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry.

A preliminary "searching-dose" study of prazosin hydrochloride compared its antihypertensive effects with those of a small fixed-dose daily ration of polythiazide, placebo, and both active drugs given together in the treatment of 38 ambulatory patients with primary arterial hypertension who were treated for 14 weeks.

Prazosin in daily doses of 8 to 40 mg, polythiazide 2 mg daily, and the two in combination were effective antihypertensive therapies statistically superior to placebo responses. Significant differences in treatment periods ranked the hypotensive activity as follows: prazosin + polythiazide > prazosin > polythiazide > placebo (all P values 0.01 or better). Changes in mean arterial blood pressure did not indicate postural effects.

Laboratory alterations included a decrement in serum potassium and a rise in serum CO₂ and uric acid during polythiazide periods, and a minimal increment in serum sodium and chloride during prazosin weeks. The electrocardiogram was unchanged save for development of left bundle branch block during the combination treatment weeks of one patient, while a decrease in heart size was recorded on x-ray examination of four patients. Side effects, which did not differ significantly for any of the treatment periods, did not limit therapy.

These data suggest that prazosin hydrochloride is an efficacious agent for the therapy of ambulatory patients with arterial hypertension, particularly when a thiazide diuretic is given in concert, but critical confirmation of these preliminary findings in additional subjects is appropriate.

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