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. 1982 Apr 10;284(6322):1067–1070. doi: 10.1136/bmj.284.6322.1067

Additive antianginal effect of verapamil in patients receiving propranolol

Mayer Bassan, Daniel Weiler-Ravell, Oded Shalev
PMCID: PMC1497925  PMID: 6802408

Abstract

Ten men with stable angina pectoris not fully relieved by optimal doses of propranolol (mean 218 mg daily) were given a single oral dose of 120 mg verapamil or a placebo on alternate mornings; the order of treatment was double blind. Patients had trained in a protocol that precipitated angina after three to six minutes of exercise on a bicycle ergometer. On test days, and with continued propranolol treatment, bicycle exercise was performed just before the administration of verapamil or placebo and hourly thereafter for eight hours. Mean exercise tolerance was 118 seconds greater one hour after verapamil than one hour after placebo (p <0·001), and a significant though somewhat diminished difference of 66 seconds was still present at six hours (p <0·01). Verapamil lowered resting systolic blood pressure by 12 mm Hg (p <0·01) without changing heart rate. None of the 10 patients showed adverse effects from the verapamil-propranolol combination.

The results of this study suggest that verapamil is a highly effective antianginal supplement to propranolol.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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