Open AccessLeft ventricular muscle mass and diastolic function in patients with essential hypertension under long‐term clonidine monotherapy
Author(s) -
Hüting Jürgen,
Mitrovic Veselin,
Thormann Jochen,
Bahavar Hassan,
Schlepper Martin
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
clinical cardiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.263
H-Index - 72
eISSN - 1932-8737
pISSN - 0160-9289
DOI - 10.1002/clc.4960140209
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , ejection fraction , isovolumic relaxation time , diastole , blood pressure , doppler echocardiography , isovolumetric contraction , stroke volume , left ventricular hypertrophy , heart rate , essential hypertension , heart failure , clonidine
To determine whether alterations of left ventricular (LV) structure are associated with improved LV function under chronic clonidine monotherapy (300–450 g/day) of essential hypertension, 11 male patients (age range 47–61 years) were followed for 5.4 ± 0.9 months using echocardiography and Doppler echocardiography. Blood pressure decreased from a mean of 168/105 to 150/96 mmHg (p<0.01), heart rate remained unchanged (73 ± 10 vs. 71 ± 10 beats/min). LV muscle mass decreased from 350 ± 73 to 297 ± 56 g (p<0.02), LV volume/muscle mass ratio increased from 0.58 ± 0.13 to 0.69 ± 0.12 ml/g (p<0.005). Ejection time increased from 276 ± 17 to 296 ± 17 ms (p<0.01), whereas no significant change was found for pre‐ejection period, ejection fraction, cardiac index and LV dimensions. Doppler analysis revealed improved isovolumic relaxation time (116 ± 17 vs. 84 ± 28 ms; p<0.05), but no change in isovolumic contraction duration, maximal inflow velocities, time‐velocity integrals and their duration, rate of acceleration and deceleration of early and atrial filling, and of their ratios. It is concluded that no reliable improvement in diastolic or systolic LV function is observed in chronic clonidine monotherapy of essential hypertension despite a normalization of blood pressure and a regression of LV hypertrophy.