NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Sildenafil (Viagra), the popular erectile dysfunction drug, improves blood pressure and has other beneficial vascular effects in cardiac transplant recipients with hypertension, new research shows.

Hypertension can be difficult to control in transplant recipients and often multiple agents are required. Moreover, the cardiac denervation present in these recipients means that circulatory adjustments are often limited to changes in arterial blood pressure. So, any drug with direct vascular effects could potentially be useful in such patients.

In a study reported in the October issue of the American Journal of Hypertension, Dr. Richard S. Schofield, from the University of Florida College of Medicine n Gainesville, and colleagues looked at the vascular effects of sildenafil in 15 hypertensive male cardiac transplant recipients. Several central and peripheral hemodynamic parameters were measured before and after the patients were given 50 mg of sildenafil.

Sildenafil treatment produced a significant improvement in brachial and aortic systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, left ventricular tension time index, aortic augmentation index, travel time of the reflected aortic pressure wave, and brachial artery reactivity (p < 0.01 for all).

Although the patients continued their usual antihypertensive drugs, none became hypotensive when sildenafil was added, the researchers note.

"The favorable effects of sildenafil on several measures of vascular function indicate that this novel compound may warrant further investigation for use as a chronic vasodilator in cardiac transplant recipients with chronic post-transplant hypertension," they add.

Am J Hypertens 2003;16:874-877.

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