Cardiac Function and Cerebral Blood Flow in Elderly Hypertensive Patients

Cerebral blood flow Left ventricular function Elderly hypertensive patients S. Landahl, MD, Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Göteborg, Vasa Hospital, S-41133 Göteborg (Sweden) The study investigated eventual effects of enalapril and metoprolol on left ventricular function and cerebral blood flow in elderly hypertensive patients. Twenty men and women (mean age, 73 years) were randomly assigned to double-blind treatment with 10 mg enalapril or 100 mg metoprolol during 26 weeks. After 13 weeks of treatment, the doses were increased to 20 and 200 mg, respectively, in nonresponders – supine diastolic blood pressure (BP) > 95 mm Hg. The left ventricular function was investigated by echocardiography, apexcardiography, pulse tracing, and long-term electrocardiographic registration and cerebral blood flow by the xenon inhalation method, both before and after 26 weeks of treatment. Conclusion An improvement was found in systolic left ventricular function after 26 weeks of treatment with enalapril (table 1). When the two treatment groups were compared, there were no differences in left ventricular function, cardiac arrhythmias, cerebral blood flow, and BP reduction after 24 h. Table 1. Comparison of enalapril and metoprolol treatment (mean ± SE)