[Lisa V]

I'm wondering if anyone here has taken any additional medication to lower blood pressure while on Cyclosporine. We all know that high BP is one of the more common side effects, but is there anything you can do about it besides lowering the dosage?

Just to recap, Ken's been on cyclo since '04. He tried one taper and relapsed, and had to repeat ATG in order to turn things around. He has a trisomy 8 mutation, and there seems to be some evidence that that is associated with long term cyclo dependence, so we haven't wanted to attempt another taper. His creatinine has been an issue, but at 175 mg/day and lots of water, he's been able to maintain his counts and keep his creatinine under control. Now, however, his BP is getting high, averaging about 140/90, or right on the edge of stage 1 hypertension. We see the doc tomorrow, so will talk about perhaps taking his dosage down to 150 mg/day, but if any of you have tried other alternatives I'd like to hear about it and take that info with us when we go.