Copyright
©The Author(s) 2026. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Cardiol. Feb 26, 2026; 18(2): 115528
Published online Feb 26, 2026. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v18.i2.115528
Published online Feb 26, 2026. doi: 10.4330/wjc.v18.i2.115528
Efficacy of nitroglycerin vs labetalol in hypertensive emergency among patients with a history of coronary artery disease
Ahmed Jamal Chaudhary, Department of Medicine, Lahore Medical and Dental College, Lahore 54000, Punjab, Pakistan
Wasim Akbar Bhat, Department of Medicine, GMC Srinagar, Srinagar 190010, Jammu and Kashmīr, India
Affan Ul Haq, Department of Cardiology, King Edward Medical University, Lahore 54000, Punjab, Pakistan
Haroon Ur Rashid, Department of Medicine, Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar 25000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Irum Dad Khan, Department of Oncology, North West General Hospital and Research Centre, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan
Mah Noor Dad Khan, Department of Accident and Emergency, Northwest General Hospital and Research Center, Peshawar 25000, Pakistan
Hafiz Muhammad Mubeen Nawaz, Department of Cardiology, Farooq Hospital DHA, Lahore 05450, Punjab, Pakistan
Sameer Ali, Department of Cardiology, Baqai Medical University, Karachi 75340, Pakistan
Muhammad Hamza Tariq, Department of Cardiology, International Medical University, Bishkek 720052, Kyrgyzstan
Author contributions: Chaudhary AJ designed the research and wrote the first draft of the manuscript; Chaudhary AJ, Bhat WA, Ul Haq A, Rashid HU, Khan ID, Khan MND, Nawaz HMM, Ali S, and Tariq MH contributed to conceiving the research and analyzing data; Chaudhary AJ and Tariq MH conducted the analysis and provided guidance for the research. All authors reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board and Ethical Committee of North West General Hospital and Research Centre, Peshawar (approval No. 78/IRB&EC/NWGH/P-2025).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Muhammad Hamza Tariq, MD, Department of Cardiology, International Medical University, Ankara Street 1/17, Bishkek 720052, Kyrgyzstan.
Received: October 20, 2025
Revised: November 1, 2025
Accepted: December 17, 2025
Published online: February 26, 2026
Processing time: 113 Days and 13.1 Hours
Revised: November 1, 2025
Accepted: December 17, 2025
Published online: February 26, 2026
Processing time: 113 Days and 13.1 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: This retrospective study uniquely compares intravenous nitroglycerin and labetalol for managing hypertensive emergencies in a large South Asian cohort of patients with established coronary artery disease. Although labetalol achieved target blood pressure more rapidly, nitroglycerin provided greater magnitude of blood pressure reduction, significantly lower rates of bradycardia, smaller rises in cardiac biomarkers, shorter intensive care unit and hospital stays, and reduced 30-day readmissions. These findings highlight nitroglycerin’s potential advantages in ischemic contexts and support its preferential use in high-risk coronary artery disease patients within resource-constrained settings.