Long-term treatment of congestive heart failure with captopril.

1 The efficacy of the converting-enzyme inhibitor captopril in the management of severe congestive heart failure was assessed in 14 patients over 360-885 days by clinical evaluation, M-mode echocardiography, systolic time intervals, plasma renin activity, and plasma aldosterone. 2 As compared with baseline values, a significant reduction was observed in heart rate, mean arterial pressure, left ventricular end-diastolic and end-systolic diameters, left ventricular pre-ejection period, tension time index, body weight, and plasma aldosterone. Significant increases in left ventricular ejection time and fractional circumferential shortening (p less than 0.01) were also observed. 3 The functional and haemodynamic benefit provided by captopril was therefore sustained during long-term therapy without severe untoward effects or attenuation.