Clevidipine is a dihydropyridine L-type calcium channel blocker used to lower blood pressure when oral antihypertensive therapy is not feasible or not desirable. Clevidipine is used IV only and practitioners titrate this drug to lower blood pressure. It has a half-life of approximately one minute. It is rapidly inactivated by esterases. It can be found under the brand name Cleviprex. Clevidipine is a dihydropyridine L-type calcium channel blocker, highly selective for vascular, as opposed to myocardial, smooth muscle and, therefore, has little or no effect on myocardial contractility or cardiac conduction. Clevidipine belongs to a well-known class of drugs called dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonists. Clevidpine is the first third generation intravenous dihydropyridine calcium channel blocker. In vitro studies demonstrated that clevidipine acts by selectively relaxing the smooth muscle cells that line small arteries, resulting in arterial dilation, widening of the artery opening, and without reducing central venous pressure or reducing cardiac output. Possibly by deforming the channel, inhibiting ion-control gating mechanisms, and/or interfering with the release of calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, clevidipine inhibits the influx of extracellular calcium across both the myocardial and vascular smooth muscle cell membranes. Some side effects of using clevidipine may include agitation, headache, lethargy, and twitching.

Clevidipine Pathway References