Clinical and experimental effects of reserpine in patients with essential hypertension.

since our studies on the acute effects of single dosages of parenteral reserpine are still in the exploratory stages, it should be clearly. understood that the results reported here are not to be taken as definitive but rather & tentative and preliiary observations. In the early stages of this investigation, we failed to observe significant hypotensive effects until we reached a dosage range of 25 pg. per kgm. or higher. Hence, in the 19’hospitalized hypertensive patients reported here, 4 received dosages of 25 pg. per kgm. and the remainder 40 pg. per km; in other words, approximately 2.5 to 3 mgm. as a single intravenous dose. This came dissolved in approximately 5 ~c. of propylene glycol and was further diluted with 12.5 cc. of normal saline. The resulting solution was given intravenously over a period of 10 to 15 minutes. Five normotensive patients were treated similarly, also. All of the 19 hypertensive patients exhibited Grade I to II changes in the optic fundi and were su8ering from hypertension of moderate severity. FIGURE 1 shows the reductions of blood pressure observed in this group. In four there