The immediate antihypertensive effect of 10 mg nifedipine sublingually (nifedipine test), was measured in 19 chronic renal failure hypertensive patients on dialysis and 34 essential hypertensive patients with normal kidney function. The blood pressure decreased significantly in both groups. The minimal values were observed between 30 and 60 minutes after the sublingual administration of nifedipine. The blood pressure decreased from 178 +/- 3.3/104.0 +/- 3.9 to 136.0 +/- 4.7/87.5 +/- 5.1 mm Hg (p less than 0.001) in dialysis patients and from 176.8 +/- 4.5/107.1 +/- 2.4 to 133.0 +/- 3.0/81.7 +/- 2.2 mm Hg in essential hypertension patients (p less than 0.001). The decrease in blood pressure during the test had a significant positive correlation with the pre-test values. Thirteen hypertensive patients on dialysis and 20 essential hypertensive patients completed 2 weeks of daily oral nifedipine therapy, with a dose of 30 to 40 mg per day. The mean blood pressure at the end of the 2 weeks of treatment decreased from 179.5 +/- 4.5/108.5 +/- 5.3 mm Hg to 154.4 +/- 6.3/82.3 +/- 2.6 mm Hg (p less than 0.001) in dialysis patients, and from 176.8 +/- 5.8/110.3 +/- 2.9 to 151.3 +/- 5.3/93.5 +/- 2.6 mm Hg (p less than 0.001) in essential hypertension patients. The present results reveal that nifedipine has a powerful immediate as well as a long-term antihypertensive action in dialysis patients with high blood pressure. This effect is similar to that obtained in essential hypertensive patients.