Efonidipine, Another Beauty Relieving the Pressure

In a variety of observational studies from the population level to various clinical situations, it is well known that, a lower heart rate is considered to be better. 1) However, in Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial study, a vice versa was demonstrated showing an inferior protection for stroke by atenolol and bendroflumethiazide to amlodipine and perindopril. 2) Despite of several explanations on those contradictory findings, findings such as the pharmacodynamics actions, an explanation solely provided by the slow heart rate seems to be, at least from a statistical viewpoint, the most powerful. n the study by Komukai et al. 4) efonidifine, a dihydropiridine calcium antagonist on the actions of L-type as well as T-type calcium channels, showed a significant reduction in the heart rate as well as in the blood pressure. It is characterized by rapid onset and durable action which is independent of the administration time. In the previous study by Oh et al. 5) efonidipine also showed similar efficacy, in regards to, slowing down the heart rate by approximately 11% in the mild to moderate hypertension patients. Komukai et al. 4) postulated that heart rate reduction could be partially explained by slowly fading antihypertensive action, which was demonstrated by a non-linear fitting model, based periodic function.