Clinical studies have demonstrated that calcium antagonists can reduce cardiovascular events in patients with coronary artery disease. Recently, suppression of the development of coronary atherosclerotic plaque by calcium antagonists has been reported as one of the mechanisms involved. Thus, calcium antagonists have been promising strategy for preventing the progression of the coronary atherosclerosis. Various calcium antagonists are clinically available at present and these drugs may differ from each other with respect to the anti-atherosclerotic effects. Consequently, we plan to perform the ALPS-J study to compare the effects of two long-acting calcium antagonists, azelnidipine and amlodipine, on plaque quantitatively by IVUS. In this study, azelnidipine (16 mg/day) or amlodipine besilate (5 mg/day) will be administered to patients with hypertension for 48 weeks after elective PCI. The plaque volume will be measured in each patient by IVUS at the time of PCI and 48 weeks after PCI. Percent change in plaque volume from the baseline value will be used as the primary endpoints for evaluation of efficacy. We plan to enroll 100 patients in each group for a total of 200 patients.
