Clinical benefits of structural and functional changes with calcium antagonists

Calcium antagonists have a large variety of pharmacologic effects in addition to those exploited clinically. All drugs used in the management of hypertension, including calcium antagonists, are coming under increasing scrutiny for the possible beneficial and adverse effects they may have on the circulation and risk factor profile. This is particularly because of concern about the relative resistance of coronary heart diseaee to antihypertensive drug treatment and the increasing interest in evaluating the impact of blood pressure-lowering drugs on surrogate endpoints such as left ventricular hypertrophy