Antihypertensives Test Prep and Practice Pearls; Part 1 – ACEIs and CCBs
Real Life Pharmacology - Pharmacology Education for Health Care Professionals
Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist
5 • 716 Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome to today’s episode, where we dive into two cornerstone classes of antihypertensives: ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers. These drugs are among the most frequently prescribed agents in both primary care and specialty settings, making a solid understanding of their practical nuances essential for clinicians, pharmacists, and learners alike. In this episode, we’ll break down the most important clinical pearls that can immediately improve your prescribing confidence and patient care.
We’ll start with ACE inhibitors, a class often selected for patients with hypertension, heart failure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. While widely effective, ACE inhibitors come with monitoring requirements and predictable side effect profiles that clinicians must recognize early. We’ll highlight what changes in renal function are acceptable, how to navigate issues like hyperkalemia and cough, and when switching to an ARB may be the safest option.
Next, we’ll move into calcium channel blockers, emphasizing the differences between dihydropyridines and non-dihydropyridines—two groups with distinct effects and unique considerations. I outline amlodipine’s adverse effects and how to navigate a patient who is experiencing edema.
By the end of this episode, you’ll walk away with a set of high-yield, easy-to-apply pearls that you can use in your next patient encounter. If you use antihypertensives and treat hypertension, heart failure, arrhythmias, or chronic kidney disease, this episode will help sharpen your understanding of these foundational therapies and elevate your medication management strategies. Let’s get started.
Be sure to check out our free Top 200 study guide – a 31 page PDF that is yours for FREE!
Support The Podcast and Check Out These Amazing Resources!
Meded101 Guide to Nursing Pharmacology (Amazon Highly Rated)
Guide to Drug Food Interactions (Amazon Best Seller)
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast. |
| 0:03.5 | This is your host, Eric Christensen. |
| 0:06.5 | I am a pharmacist, board certified in geriatrics and pharmacotherapy. |
| 0:12.8 | Doing a little bit of a different episode today by request and emails that I get, |
| 0:19.6 | starting on some of the most commonly used anti-hypertensive medications. |
| 0:26.7 | And I'm going to try to break this down into some of the most important things you're going to see on board exams and pharmacology exams, as well as practice pearls. pearls so uh going to cover ace inhibitors and |
| 0:40.7 | calcium channel blockers within this podcast today as always go check out real life pharmacology |
| 0:46.5 | dot com i've got a free pdf it's 31 pages on the top 200 drug top 200 drugs uh great study guy |
| 0:53.7 | great refresher. |
| 0:55.3 | An email is all. |
| 0:56.7 | It'll cost you to get that. |
| 0:57.7 | So again, that's at real-life pharmacology.com. |
| 1:01.1 | All right. |
| 1:01.8 | Let's get into it a little bit here. |
| 1:03.9 | We're going to start with ACE inhibitor practice pearls. |
| 1:08.2 | I would say the most commonly used ACE inhibitor I see in practice is lysinepril. |
| 1:14.6 | I think that's what most clinicians are comfortable with. |
| 1:17.8 | You do see occasional analapril, ramapril, and other medications. |
| 1:22.9 | Remember that ending, that P-R-I-L, that indicates that it's an ACE inhibitor. |
| 1:30.4 | When we're starting an ACE inhibitor, I think it is important to pay attention. |
| 1:37.5 | Generally, we want to start low and go slow, especially in patients with KD. |
| 1:44.0 | It can cause acute renal impairment. especially in patients with CKD. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 23 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Eric Christianson, PharmD; Pharmacology Expert and Clinical Pharmacist and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.