OBJECTIVE To determine whether the β blocker esmolol reduces coronary artery wall stress more than the short acting dihydropyridine calcium antagonist nicardipine.

DESIGN Randomised double blind placebo controlled trial.

SETTING Tertiary cardiology centre.

PATIENTS Patients with coronary artery disease.

INTERVENTIONS 20 patients were randomised double blind to an infusion of nicardipine (n = 10) or esmolol (n = 10) titrated to reduce systolic blood pressure by 20 mm Hg.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Peak systolic wall circumferential stress.

RESULTS Esmolol reduced peak coronary stress by a mean of 0.17 × 10⁶ dyn/cm²(95% confidence interval (CI) 0.14 to 0.21 × 10⁶ dyn/cm²) compared with a reduction of 0.07 × 10⁶ dyn/cm² (95% CI 0.05 to 0.10 × 10⁶ dyn/cm²) after nicardipine. Peak systolic radius was reduced by 0.04 mm (95% CI 0.03 to 0.06 mm) after esmolol compared with an increase of 0.08 mm (95% CI 0.05 to 0.10 mm) after nicardipine. Heart rate increased by 11.5 beats/min (95% CI 6.9 to 16.2 beats/min) after nicardipine and decreased by 5.3 beats/min (95% CI 1.9 to 8.6 beats/min) after esmolol.

CONCLUSIONS Intravenous esmolol is more effective than nicardipine at reducing circumferential coronary artery wall stress.