title: 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.affiliation: MRC Multidisciplinary Research Group on Hypertension, Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
authors.forename: E L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Schiffrin
authors.forename: L Y
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Larochelle
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001158:Arteries / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001262:Atenolol / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects; D017315:Cilazapril / Q000494:pharmacology* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D017315:Cilazapril; D001262:Atenolol