Metoprolol minimizes nighttime blood pressure dip in hypertensive black males

Night blood pressure responses to atenolol and hydrochlorothiazide in black and white patients with essential hypertension

BACKGROUND

Night blood pressure (BP) predicts patient outcomes. Variables associated with night BP response to antihypertensive agents have not been fully evaluated in essential hypertension.

METHODS

We sought to measure night BP responses to hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ), atenolol (ATEN), and combined therapy using ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitoring in 204 black and 281 white essential hypertensive patients. Initial therapy was randomized; HCTZ and ATEN once daily doses were doubled after 3 weeks and continued for 6 more weeks with the alternate medication added for combined therapy arms. ABP was measured at baseline and after completion of each drug. Night, day, and night/day BP ratio responses (treatment - baseline) were compared in race/sex subgroups.

RESULTS

Baseline night systolic BP and diastolic BP, and night/day ratios were greater in blacks than whites (P < 0.01, all comparisons). Night BP responses to ATEN were absent and night/day ratios increased significantly in blacks (P < 0.05). At the end of combined therapy, women, blacks, and those starting with HCTZ as opposed to ATEN had significantly greater night BP responses (P < 0.01). Variables that significantly associated with ATEN response differed from those that associated with HCTZ response and those that associated with night BP response differed from those that associated with day BP response.

CONCLUSIONS

In summary, after completion of HCTZ and ATEN therapy, women, blacks, and those who started with HCTZ had greater night BP responses. Reduced night BP response and increased night/day BP ratios occured with ATEN in blacks. Given the prognostic significance of night BP, strategies for optimizing night BP antihypertensive therapy should be considered.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

Clinicaltrials.gov identifier NCT00246519.

Influence of phenotype and pharmacokinetics on beta-blocker drug target pharmacogenetics

Two common polymorphisms in the beta1-adrenergic receptor gene, Ser49Gly and Arg389Gly, are associated with variable antihypertensive response to metoprolol. We sought to determine whether similar pharmacogenetic associations were present with the negative chronotropic response phenotype to metoprolol. Metoprolol was titrated in 54 untreated hypertensive patients to achieve blood pressure control. We found no association between either resting or exercise heart rate at baseline (untreated) or in response to metoprolol by codon 389 genotype. In contrast, when compared by codon 49 genotype, Ser49 homozygotes had significantly higher resting heart rates at baseline (untreated) than Gly49 carriers (82+/-10 versus 74+/-11 bpm, respectively, P=0.016). When corrected for plasma concentration, we found no difference in reduction in exercise heart rate in response to metoprolol between Ser49 homozygotes and Gly49 carriers (0.75+/-0.11 versus 0.57+/-0.17%/ng/ml, respectively, P=0.37). However, if one fails to account for plasma concentration, trends toward a significant difference in heart rate reduction are seen between Ser49 homozygotes and Gly49 carriers (31% reduction versus 25% reduction, P=0.05). Our data suggest that neither the beta1-adrenergic receptor Arg389Gly, nor the Ser49Gly polymorphisms are associated with variable negative chronotropic response to metoprolol. In addition, our data highlight the importance of measuring metoprolol concentration in order to account for variable pharmacokinetics and avoid misinterpretation of the data.

Gender differences in labetalol kinetics: importance of determining stereoisomer kinetics for racemic drugs

STUDY OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the impact of gender on labetalol kinetics.

DESIGN

Part of a randomized, crossover study.

SETTING

Academic medical center.

PATIENTS

Nineteen hypertensive patients (14 men, 5 women; 6 blacks, 13 whites).

INTERVENTIONS

Participants had labetalol dosages titrated to a specific antihypertensive response, then underwent ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) and a pharmacokinetic study. Labetalol plasma concentrations were measured by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and labetalol stereoisomer ratios were determined in a single plasma sample by chiral HPLC, both with fluorescence detection.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Labetalol concentrations were 80% higher in women (area under the concentration-time curve [AUC]/dose x 1000: 6.79 +/- 2.11 in women vs 3.82 +/- 1.37 hr/L in men, p<0.05), yet both genders had a similar antihypertensive response by 24-hour ABPM. Dose-corrected AUC (AUC/dose x 1000) for labetalol's stereoisomers in women and men, respectively, were S,R-labetalol 7.55 +/- 1.47 and 4.83 +/- 1.54 hr/L (p<0.05), S,S-labetalol 8.23 +/- 2.93 and 4.65 +/- 1.78 hr/L (p<0.05), R,S-labetalol 6.99 +/- 3.30 and 4.25 +/- 2.35 hr/L (p=0.11), and R,R-labetalol 3.91 +/- 2.57 and 3.55 +/- 3.08 hr/L (NS).

CONCLUSION

The higher labetalol concentration in women than in men was explained largely by differences in inactive and alpha1-blocking stereoisomers. However, concentrations were similar between genders for the beta-blocking stereoisomer (R,R-labetalol), possibly explaining the similarity in antihypertensive response to the drug. This study highlights the importance of determining stereoisomer kinetics for agents administered as racemates, particularly when relating concentrations to pharmacologic response.

Relationships of cardiac function and structure to blood pressure rhythms

It is well known that hemodynamic load is one of the most important determinants of cardiac structure and function. Circadian variations in blood pressure (BP) values are usually accompanied by consensual changes in peripheral resistance and/or cardiac output. In recent years, in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), a reduction in the circadian variations of BP and, in particular, a lack of nocturnal decline were observed; patients with only a small reduction in BP or none at all during the night were considered "non-dippers." In patients in whom a regression of LVH was obtained after prolonged antihypertensive therapy, restoration of the circadian rhythm of BP was also observed. However, the division of patients into "dippers" and "non-dippers" is arbitrary and poorly standardized and repeatable, and in the recent SAMPLE study, most hypertensive patients with LVH were dippers. Therefore, we should be particularly cautious about the conclusions drawn using this index. On the other hand, in patients with LVH, reduced activity of the low pressure cardiopulmonary baroreceptors and impaired day-to-night modulation of autonomic nervous system activity were observed. Therefore, cardiac structural alterations may possibly impair BP modulation; on the other hand, the opposite could also be true: a primarily altered BP modulation, through a persistently elevated afterload, could increase cardiac mass. Therefore, the interrelationships between cardiac structure and BP modulation are complex, and as a result, new and more specific methods of evaluation circadian changes in BP are needed to better clarify their reciprocal influences.

Racial differences in sensitivity to the negative chronotropic effects of propranolol in healthy men

OBJECTIVE

Dose-response studies in patients with hypertension have shown that black subjects are less responsive to beta-blocker therapy than white subjects, whereas studies in healthy volunteers suggest marginal or no racial differences in response. No concentration-response studies have been conducted in black subjects and white subjects. The purpose of this study was to characterize beta-blocker pharmacodynamics in healthy black and white men.

METHODS

Thirteen black and 13 white healthy men took 80 mg oral propranolol three times daily, for a total of 16 doses. Heart rate response to treadmill exercise was measured at various times over 24 hours. Serum propranolol samples were collected during the same 24-hour time period and were measured by chiral HPLC. The sigmoid maximal effect (Emax), Emax, and linear models were fitted to percentage reductions in exercise heart rate and S-propranolol concentrations.

RESULTS

Black subjects had significantly lower values for serum concentration producing one-half the maximal effect (EC50) and unbound EC50 than white subjects (EC50: 10.2 ng/ml (4.4 to 28.0 ng/ml) versus 24.4 ng/ml (14.3 to 64.1 ng/ml), blacks versus whites; unbound EC50: 1.29 ng/ml (0.686 to 4.91 ng/ml) versus 2.77 ng/ml (1.70 to 8.11 ng/ml), blacks versus whites). There was no statistical difference in Emax (33.3% [22.2% to 39.7%] versus 38.3% [30.7% to 45.1%], blacks versus whites).

CONCLUSIONS

Healthy black men were more sensitive to beta-blockade than healthy white men. The results of this study in healthy volunteers suggest that the racial differences in response observed in patients with hypertension are related to hypertensive pathophysiology rather than normal physiology.