RESEARCH ARTICLE Effects of Verapamil SR and Atenolol on 24- Hour Blood Pressure and Heart Rate in Hypertension Patients with Coronary Artery Disease: An International Verapamil SR- Trandolapril Ambulatory Monitoring

Elevated nighttime blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR), increased BP and HR variabili-ty, and altered diurnal variations of BP and HR (nighttime dipping and morning surge) in pa-tients with systemic hypertension are each associated with increased adverse cardiovascular events. However, there are no reports on the effect of hypertension treat-ment on these important hemodynamic parameters in the growing population of hyperten-sive patients with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD). This was a pre-specified subgroup analysis of the INternational VErapamil SR-Trandolapril STudy (INVEST), which involved 22,576 clinically stable patients aged50 years with hypertension and CAD ran-domized to either verapamil SR- or atenolol-based hypertension treatment strategies. The subgroup consisted of 117 patients undergoing 24-hour ambulatory monitoring at baselin