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(Circulation. 1958;18:348.)
© 1958 American Heart Association, Inc.

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Postural Hypotension

Variations in Different Drugs and Different Patients

PHILIP L. DERN M.D.¹

¹ From the Department of Medicine, Otago University Medical School, Dunedin, New Zealand.

Clinical experience suggests that there are differences in the extent to which hypertensive patients respond with falls in blood pressure after administration of effective doses of ganglionic-blocking drugs. In this study attempts are made to define the relative magnitudes of the postural and nonpostural falls in blood pressure that are produced by these drugs. Frequent measurements of the blood pressure were made in hypertensive human subjects before and after the administration of ganglion-blocking agents. Drug-induced falls in blood pressure are calculated with reference to the baseline levels of blood pressure established in various ways for the individual patients.