EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF ISRADIPINE SRO IN THE TREATMENT OFHYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS WITH LEFT-VENTRICULAR HYPERTROPHY

Myocardial hypertrophy is a response to many diseases, above all hyper tension, that involves morphological and functional damage and may be the basis for the development of myocardial dysfunction. We attempted to verify the effectiveness of a new calcium antagonist, isradipine 5 mg SRO, on the reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy. For this purp ose 13 hypertensive patients (pts) were treated for 12 weeks, which is the minimum period described in the literature for the regression of hypertrophy. At the end of the study, blood pressure in all patients r eturned to normal levels (mean blood pressure from 120.15 +/- 4.4 to 1 08 +/- 6.4 mmHg, p < 0.001); end-systolic stress (from 128 +/- 30 to 6 5 +/- 14 g/ cm(2), p < 0.001), and left ventricular mass index (from 1 42 +/- 31 to 97 +/- 23 g/m(2), p < 0.001) showed significant reduction . Moreover, Doppler-derived indexes of left ventricular filling improv ed, particularly early to late peak velocity of the mitral valve (EIA ratio) and deceleration time (from 235 +/- 37 to 198 +/- 17 msec, p < 0.001), which were normalized after 12 weeks. In conclusion isradipine shows rapid effects in the reversal of morphofunctional damage in hyp ertension. For this reason it also appears to be useful for the treatm ent of myocardial hypertrophy in the absence of chronic hypertension.