One-year results of an open-label study on antiproteinuric effect of benidipine in elderly patients with chronic kidney disease.

Background: The long-term antiproteinuric effects of benidipine, a calcium channel blocker (CCB), have not been evaluated in detail in hypertensive patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Methods: Benidipine (4 mg/day) was administered to previously untreated hypertensive patients with CKD, or hypertensive patients with CKD not achieving tar- get blood pressure (BP) despite taking an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB). The patients were followed up for 1 year. If target BP was not achieved by 2 weeks after the start of benidipine treatment, the dosage was increased to 8 mg/day. The urinary protein to crea- tinine (UP/cre) ratio was evaluated before and after benidipine treatment. Results: This study evaluated 65 hypertensive patients with CKD. BP (systolic/diastolic) decreased from 154 ± 19 / 91 ± 12 mm Hg before treatment to 134 ± 16 / 78 ± 10 mm Hg at 1 year after treatment (p<0.001). The UP/cre ratio decreased significantly from 2.21 ± 2.47 g/g creatinine (g/g cre) before treatment to 1.43 ± 2.21 g/g cre after treatment (p<0.001). In both the untreated and ARB-treated groups, the BP and UP/cre ratio decreased significantly at 1 year after treatment. The percentage change in the UP/cre ratio was signifi-