Blood pressure and clinical status of 1,736 patients with cerebrovascular disease were observed during 12 months of treatment with nicardipine. The most common diagnoses were chronic cerebral ischemia (53.2%), transient ischemic attacks (TIA; 25.1%), and cerebral infarct (8.7%); 50.1% of patients were classed as hypertensive [systolic blood pressure (SBP) > or = 160 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) > or = 90 mm Hg]. Most patients (91.2%) received a daily dose of 60 mg nicardipine. Additional treatments included diuretics (37%), beta-blockers (11.5%), other antihypertensive drugs (15.8%), platelet antiaggregants (25.1%), and cardiotonic drugs (15.1%). A total of 282 patients (16.2%) were lost to follow-up, 21 (1.2%) patients withdrew due to side effects, 32 (1.8%) died, and 9 (0.5%) patients had treatment interrupted due to concomitant illness. In the hypertensive subgroup, blood pressure (SBP/DBP) was reduced from a mean baseline value of 175 +/- 22/97 +/- 14 mm Hg to 152 +/- 17/85 +/- 11 mm Hg at 3 months and 149 +/- 23/81 +/- 11 mm Hg after 12 months of treatment. The incidence of TIA or stroke among these patients was reduced from 29 cases (3.5%) during the first 3 months to 11 cases (1.54%) during months 4-12 (p < 0.01). In normotensive patients there were 18 (2.15%) cases during months 1-3 and 13 (1.55%) cases during months 4-12 (difference not significant). In the 280 patients treated with nicardipine alone, the most frequent side effects during the first month were facial flushing (6.8%), gastrointestinal problems (5%), dizziness (3.2%), headache (3.2%), drowsiness (3.2%), and hypotension (1.1%). Most of these side effects were transient.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)