A comparison of diltiazem and atenolol in angina

Abstract

Summary:Diltiazem was compared to atenolol in a double-blind trial involving 78 patients suffering from coronary heart disease. Following a 2 week control period, patients were randomly allocated to 6 weeks treatment with one or the other drug.The patients themselves made daily records of anginal attacks, trinitrate requirements, well-being and exercise tolerance. With both drugs there were highly significant reductions in the anginal attack rate and trinitrate requirements, and significant improvement on the other measures. However, there were no significant between drug differences.The incidence of side effects with diltiazem was very low and no patient had to omit treatment for this reason, although three patients did so on atenolol.

Long-term beta blockers for stable angina: systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Side effects were mild and similar both in beta blocker groups and placebo (overall OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.08 to 6.93), 13,28 but more common in propranolol group than in no beta blocker group (OR 26.69, 95% CI 1.54 to 461.38), 17 and no difference when compared with CCBs (overall OR 0.92, 95% CI 0.71 to 1.19), 9,20,22,26,27,31 with trimetazidine, 21 or with nicorandil, 23 or between two beta blockers. 24,29,32…”

Antihypertensive efficacy of twice daily controlled release diltiazem using 24 hour intra-arterial blood pressure monitoring

“…Of these drugs, diltiazem has become a popular choice for the treatment of cardiac disorders due to its favourable side effect profile and low incidence of adverse events [1]. Diltiazem has been shown in numerous clinical studies to be safe and effective in the treatment of angina pectoris [2][3][4][5][6] and hypertension [7][8][9][10].…”