Despite normal indices of left-ventricular (LV) chamber function, patients with
hypertension are thought to have depressed LV midwall systolic shortening. This study was designed to investigate effects of short-term
therapy with
cilnidipine on LV midwall fractional shortening (mFS) in Chinese patients with
hypertension. Thirty-seven patients with mild to moderate
essential hypertension underwent a 2 week placebo run-in period, then received 5-10 mg/day of
cilnidipine orally for 8 weeks. At the end of the placebo period and treatment, patients were examined by echocardiogram, measuring and calculating LV ejection fraction (EF), LV endocardial fraction shortening (eFS), and LV mFS. Compared with the normotensive group, the hypertensive group had a significantly higher eFS (P < 0.05) and
EF (P < 0.01), both at the end of the placebo period and at 8 weeks; mFS of patients with
hypertension was lower at the end of the placebo period (P < 0.05), but at the end of 8 weeks mFS was not different than that of the control group (P = 0.963). After
cilnidipine treatment, EF and eFS did not change (P > 0.05); however, absolute mFS and corrected mFS were increased significantly (P < 0.01). Moreover, changes of mFS showed no correlation with changes of blood pressure (P > 0.05). Midwall fractional shortening is more reliable and sensitive than conventional systolic function measures in assessment of systolic function;
cilnidipine can improve left-ventricular systolic function (mFS) independently of blood pressure changes in Chinese patients who have
hypertension.