Hypertension, possible vascular protection and lercanidipine

Systemic hypertension is a major global problem contributing to enormous disease burden, premature morbidity and mortality. A substantial majority of hypertensive patients require long-term drug therapy for appropriate blood pressure control. Although there are many classes of antihypertensive drugs for clinical use, calcium channel blockers (CCBs) have a special role in the management of hypertension owing to their well established safety and efficacy among the CCBs; the dihydropyridines (DHPs) are recognized for their predictable efficacy and dependability to achieve the recommended target goals of treatment. The older DHPs, such as nifedipine, felodipine and amlodipine, can cause bothersome side effects, such as ankle edema. The new-generation lipophilic DHP CCBs, such as lercanidipine, offer an advantage of less frequent occurrence of ankle edema. Furthermore, lercanidipine (in contrast to older DHPs) exerts favorable cardiorenal effects. Lercanidipine administered alone or in combination with other antihypertensive drugs represents a useful treatment option for efficient blood pressure control without causing significant adverse effects.