Antihypertensive drugs and the nervous system: Ace-inhibitors restore oscillatory potentials in hypertensives.

The authors have previously reported that oscillatory potentials (O.P.) of the electroretinogram are impaired in essential hypertensive patients befor e the appearance of funduscopic changes. They can therefore be considered a n early marker of the nervous damage induced by hypertension. Aim of this s tudy was to evaluate whether an antihypertensive regimen could influence th e progression of this damage. O.P. were recorded in 35 essential hypertensi ves before antihypertensive treatment and after one-year treatment. The pat ients were randomly allocated into 4 treatment groups: 1) beta-blockers 2) ACE-Inhibitors 3) calcium antagonists 4) no pharmacological treatment. At t he end of the study, blood pressure was significantly decreased in all but group 4. O.P., similar in the 4 groups at the beginning, were significantly higher at the end of the study only in patients treated with ACE-inhibitor s. The results of this study suggest that although all hypothensive agents reduced blood pressure only ACE-I showed a protective effect on the retinal electric electrophysiology in hypertensive patients.