Left ventricular hypertrophy: dissociation of structural and functional effects by therapy.

The heart is one of the major target organs that becomes secondarily involved with the unrelenting and progressive vascular disease of essential hypertension. As a result of this increasing afterload that is imposed upon the left ventricle, the ventricular chamber adapts structurally and functionally. Structural changes involve an increase in muscle mass that is achieved through left ventricular hypertrophy (in a manner similar to the arteriolar changes demonstrated by increased thickening). Unless antihypertensive therapy is interdicted in this disease process, left ventricular failure will ensue as the major cardiac hemodynamic consequence. Left ventricular hypertrophy is also associated with a risk that is independent of the pressure overload and hemodynamic risk. Although antihypertensive therapy will reduce from the hemodynamic alterations, only recently have epidemiological findings suggested that the independent risk of LVH may be reduced with pharmacological therapy. There are no data available to indicate just which agents may reduce the risk from LVH; but relatively recent studies seem to indicate that while all agents may reduce LVH with prolonged therapy only certain classes of agents will do so independent of their hemodynamic factors. Some of these agents, however, may impair cardiac function if arterial pressure is increased abruptly following therapeutic reduction of cardiac mass. Other agents may preserve normal function--or even may improve function. Among those classes of antihypertensive agents that reduce cardiac mass at least in part due to nonhemodynamic factors, are the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, the calcium antagonists, and most adrenergic inhibitors. Evidence will be presented demonstrating the hemodynamic/structural dissociation of those pharmacological agents that reduce cardiac mass with short-term treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats with left ventricular hypertrophy. Although centrally active adrenolytic, angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, and calcium antagonists all reduce cardiac mass, their structural and cardiac functional effects differ greatly. Even within the ACE inhibitor group their effects vary--improving, impairing, or not changing the Frank-Starling relationships following reduction in left ventricular mass. We postulate great variability of cardiac intramyocytic penetrance of the pharmacological agents and their local intracellular effects on mitogenesis of the ventricular myocyte. The implications on cardiac function and therapy have vast potential. Therefore, current investigative areas involving new concepts of molecular biology of the cardiac myocyte may provide great promise to the quest of unraveling some of the newly postulated questions: What is the role of ionized intracellular calcium? Do the local renin-angiotensin systems in the cardiac and vascular myocyte participate in the development and regression of hypertrophy?(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)