[Hypertension and complex ventricular arrhythmias. Evolution following a long-term blood pressure treatment].
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effects of long-term antihypertensive treatment in the frequency as well as in the complexity of ventricular arrhythmias in arterial hypertension.


METHODS
Twenty three patients, 14 males and 11 whites, with mean age of 46 years, were submitted to 24 hours ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring and echocardiographic studies before and 9 months after antihypertensive treatment.


RESULTS
There was no significant serum potassium level alteration, but significant reductions of both systolic (from 192 +/- 29mmHg to 161 +/- 25mmHg) and diastolic (from 122 +/- 17mmHg to 99 +/- 16mmHg) blood pressure. Left ventricular percent of fiber shortening significantly increased, even though only from 26 +/- 9% to 30 +/- 9%, and end-systolic wall stress did not change at all (before 258 +/- 94 10(3) dyn/cm2, after 255 +/- 101 10(3) dyn/cm2). Left ventricular mass index showed significant but also a discrete reduction from 211 +/- 75g/m2 to 196 +/- 70g/m2. Ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring did not show any significant decrease in neither ventricular ectopic beats nor in couplets. Non-sustained ventricular tachycardia episodes remained unchanged too. Four out of 8 patients with more than 30 ventricular ectopic beats per hour reduced it by more than 70%. On the other hand, the number of patients with couplets was reduced from 10 to 8 whilst those with non-sustained ventricular tachycardia increased from 5 to 7. Furthermore, in 7 patients reevaluated 24 months thereafter results were not expressively dissimilar.


CONCLUSIONS
In hypertensive patients with either severe degree of left ventricular hypertrophy or myocardial dysfunction, long-term blood pressure treatment that produce no impressive changes in these abnormalities also do not modify complex ventricular arrhythmias, in spite of a great reduction in the increase blood pressure.
Frimm
C de C
Cde C
Instituto do Coração do Hospital das Clínicas-FMUSP, São Paulo.
Gruppi
C
C
Medeiros
C
C
de Moraes
A V
AV
Moffa
P J
PJ
Silva
H B
HB
Bellotti
G
G
Krieger
E M
EM
Pileggi
F
F
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000494:pharmacology / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects*; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000187:drug effects; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013997:Time Factors; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000187:drug effects
D000959:Antihypertensive Agents
Hipertensão arterial e arritmias ventriculares complexas. Evolução após tratamento de longo prazo da pressão arterial.