How should Felodipine be used?
Felodipine comes as a tablet to take by mouth. It is usually taken once a day. Do not crush, chew, or divide felodipine tablets. Felodipine controls high blood pressure but does not cure it. Felodipine, a dihydropyridine calcium-channel blocker, is used alone or with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, to treat hypertension, chronic stable angina pectoris, and Prinzmetal’s variant angina. Felodipine is similar to other peripheral vasodilators. Felodipine inhibits the influx of extra cellular calcium across the myocardial and vascular smooth muscle cell membranes blocking the calcium channels. The decrease in intracellular calcium inhibits the contractile processes of the myocardial smooth muscle cells, causing dilation of the coronary and systemic arteries, increased oxygen delivery to the myocardial tissue, decreased total peripheral resistance, decreased systemic blood pressure, and decreased afterload.
