No abstract

The effects of verapamil and bendrofluazide used singly and in combination were examined in patients with primary hypertension in a patient blind, partly observer blind placebo controlled study of parallel group design; there were ten subjects in each arm of the trial. Verapamil 160 mg twice daily caused supine mean arterial pressure to fall by 21 mmHg; this reduction was significantly greater (p less than 0.05) than that induced by bendrofluazide 5 mg daily which caused a fall of only 10 mmHg. The addition of verapamil 160 mg twice daily to bendrofluazide 5 mg daily caused a further fall in pressure of 18 mmHg (p less than 0.005), but the reduction in pressure when bendrofluazide was added to verapamil was only 1 mmHg and not significant. Bendrofluazide therapy caused a fall in plasma potassium concentration and an increase in plasma urate concentration; urinary calcium excretion was reduced. Verapamil caused no detectable biochemical alterations in plasma or urine.

No abstract

SummaryTwo hundred and seventy-one (76",,)

The dilator response to local infusion of K+ has been assessed in the forearm resistance vessels of 17 men with primary hypertension and 11 controls, by using a standard plethysmographic method. The response to infusion of K+ at 0.1 mmol/min was smaller in the patients with hypertension than in the normal controls (P less than 0.03). The results are consistent with the view that the activity of the sodium pump is depressed in the resistance vessels of patients with hypertension, but they yield no evidence as to whether or not this abnormality contributes to the elevation of the peripheral resistance.