Background Hypertension commonly occurs after cardiac surgery and requires therapy to prevent the potentially deleterious effects.=3 (mean score, 2.0). Both isradipine and nitroprusside produced statistically significant reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressures, a decrease in systemic vascular resistance, and increases in heart rate, cardiac index, and stroke volume index. Isradipine produced no significant decreases in pulmonary artery occlusion wedge pressure compared with nitroprusside.Conclusions Intravenous isradipine was effective and well tolerated in patients with hypertension after CABG and offers an additional therapeutic option to treat patients after cardiac surgery.(Circulation. 1994;90(part 2):II-256-II-261.)