Long term effect of nifedipine GITS and lisinopril on subclinical organ damage in patients with essential hypertension

Background: Preventing subclinical organ damage is currently a major issue in the management of patients with essential hypertension. Antihypertensive drugs which act through different pathophysiological mechanisms might conf er specific target organ protection beyond what is already provided by thei r blood pressure lowering effect. Methods: Thirty-one patients with essential hypertension were randomized to receive long-term treatment with either a calcium channel blocker (nifedip ine GITS, 90 mg/day) or an ACE-inhibitor (lisinopril, 20 mg/day). Blood pre ssure, left ventricular mass, carotid wall thickness and timed urinary albu min excretion were measured at baseline and over the course of 24 months of treatment. Results: Both regimens significantly lowered mean blood pressure over the 2 4 months. (from 124+/-2 to 103+/-2 mmHg in the lisinopril group and from 12 2+/-2 to 104+/-1 in the nifedipine group). Overall, end-organ damage improv ed with persistent blood pressure control. However, the two treatments had different specific effects. Lisinopril induced a more pronounced reduction of the left ventricular mass index (from 56 +/-3 to 52+/-2 g/m(2.7), P< 0.0 5) and urinary albumin excretion (from 34+/-15 to 9+/-2 <mu>g/min, P< 0.01) , while nifedipine achieved a greater reduction of carotid intima plus medi a thickness (from 0.8+/-0.06 to 0.6+/-0.06 mm, P< 0.01). Conclusions: Blood pressure control does help reduce the severity of organ damage in patients with essential hypertension. Different antihypertensive treatments may confer additional specific cardiorenal and vascular protecti on regardless of blood pressure control. These data could be useful when de vising individualized therapeutic strategies in highrisk hypertensive patie nts.