Effects of a beta-blocker or a converting enzyme inhibitor on resistance arteries in essential hypertension.

Abstract

Seventeen male untreated mild essential hypertensive patients aged 41 +/- 2 years agreed to participate in a double-blind randomized trial to test the effects of antihypertensive treatment on the structure and function of subcutaneous resistance arteries. Patients were treated with either 50 to 100 mg/d atenolol or 2.5 to 5 mg/d cilazapril. Blood pressure before treatment was 148 +/- 6/99 +/- 1 and 147 +/- 2/99 +/- 1 mm Hg, respectively. At 1 year of treatment blood pressure was 131 +/- 4/85 +/- 2 and 132 +/- 2/87 +/- 1 mm Hg, respectively. Resistance arteries (200 to 400 microns lumen diameter) dissected from subcutaneous gluteal biopsies obtained before treatment and at 1 year showed that the media-lumen ratio of arteries from patients treated with cilazapril was reduced to 6.31 +/- 0.21% from 7.54 +/- 0.31% before treatment (P < .05), still slightly but significantly larger (P < .05) than the media-lumen ratio of resistance arteries of normotensive control subjects (5.15 +/- 0.30%). In contrast, in arteries from patients treated with atenolol there was no significant change with treatment (7.97 +/- 0.60% before and 8.07 +/- 0.45% after 1 year of treatment). Active wall tension responses to endothelin-1 were blunted in hypertensive patients and normalized in the cilazapril-treated patients. Depressed active media stress responses to norepinephrine, arginine vasopressin, and endothelin-1 were accordingly normalized in the patients receiving cilazapril as the media width became thinner but were unchanged in those taking atenolol.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

• Authors: E L Schiffrin, L Y Deng, P Larochelle
• Journal: Hypertension (Dallas, Tex. : 1979) (Hypertension) Vol. 23 Issue 1 Pg. 83-91 (Jan 1994) ISSN: 0194-911X [Print] United States
• PMID: 8282334 (Publication Type: Clinical Trial, Journal Article, Randomized Controlled Trial, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Cilazapril
• Atenolol

Topics

• Adult
• Arteries (drug effects, pathology, physiopathology)
• Atenolol (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Blood Pressure (drug effects)
• Cilazapril (pharmacology, therapeutic use)
• Double-Blind Method
• Humans
• Hypertension (drug therapy, pathology, physiopathology)
• Male
• Middle Aged