Effects of long-term blood pressure control on left and right ventricular structure and function in hypertensive patients

The functional and anatomical abnormalities of the right ventricle may occur in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). The present study was designed to assess the functional and structural changes in both left and right ventricles induced by chronic antihypertensive therapy. Doppler and standard echocardiography were performed in 10 hypertensive patients with LVH before and after 1 year of treatment with captopril alone (5 patients) or captopril plus nifedipine (5 patients). We found that the left ventricular mass index and right ventricular thickness were significantly reduced in all patients when compared with pretreatment values. Furthermore, the Doppler-derived diastolic filling indexes show a significant improvement of both ventricular chambers. Our data suggest that anatomical and functional changes induced by therapy in hypertensive patients are not limited to the left ventricle but also involve the right ventricle.