Clinical utility of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors in hypertension.

Oral angiotensin converting enzyme inhibition was introduced eight years ago and is becoming increasingly popular for the treatment of hypertension and congestive heart failure. This treatment causes blood pressure lowering associated with suppression of angiotensin and aldosterone, lack of orthostatic hypotension or metabolic disturbances, redistribution of regional blood flows in favor of vital organs and, in the long term, decreased sympathetic drive and regression of left ventricular hypertrophy. It is effective as monotherapy in more than 50 percent of unselected patients; addition of a diuretic increases the percentage of responders to more than 80 percent. It is the treatment of choice for patients with concurrent diabetes, asthma, gout, depression, or very active life-style. Side effects, observed originally in patients with severe hypertension and renal failure treated with very high doses of captopril, are rare in otherwise healthy hypertensive patients receiving smaller doses of this drug and virtually absent with second-generation angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors like enalapril.