[The regression of left ventricular hypertrophy following a short antihypertensive treatment].

With the objective of trying to prove the regression of ventricular mass in patients with essential hypertension, with and without left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), we studied 42 patients of both sexes with echocardiography, measuring the left ventricular mass (LVM), the mean parietal thickness (MPT) and the relative parietal thickness (RPT), before and after one month of random treatment with atenolol, verapamil and xipamide, independently that the blood pressure control was or not satisfactory. We found significant reductions in the MPT with verapamil and atenolol (p = 0.006 and 0.036), although only verapamil induced a significant reduction of the LVM. The RPT did not shown any significant modification, although the tendency was opposed with xipamide and the other two groups, verapamil and atenolol. The factor Adequate control of the blood pressure, with any of the treatments, proved to be helpful in the favorable evolution of the regression. The degree of LVH before treatment does not appear to have any influence in the posterior evolution with the treatment.