Administration of nifedipine CR immediately after awakening prevents a morning surge in hypertensive patients. Case report of three cases.

Abstract

Although the blood pressure-lowering action of some long-acting calcium antagonists may last more than 24 h, some patients taking this drug still experience a morning surge, i.e. an early morning increase in blood pressure. We evaluated this morning surge in three hypertensive patients with morning surge after administration of antihypertensive drugs including nifedipine CR. Nifedipine CR is one of the once-a-day formulations of nifedipine, which after administration, results in two peaks in the plasma concentration of nifedipine. The first concentration peak of occurs 3 h after administration and the second around 12 h after intake. When the time of intake of nifedipine CR was changed from after breakfast to immediately after awakening, the morning surge was suppressed in these patients without the use of other drugs such as alpha- or beta-blockers. Administration of nifedipine CR immediately after awakening is one option that can be used to prevent morning surge as well as to control blood pressure throughout the day.