Radial artery compliance in essential hypertension: effects of antihypertensive therapy with lacidipine.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the effects of antihypertensive therapy with lacidipine on the increase in radial artery compliance observed in mild essential hypertensive patients.

METHODS

The study was performed in eight mild to moderate essential hypertensive patients in whom clinic blood pressure, radial artery diameter and radial artery compliance were evaluated before and after 3 months' administration of lacidipine, at a single daily dose of 4 mg. Radial artery diameter and compliance were evaluated by means of a high precision echo-tracking device able to assess arterial compliance over the blood pressure oscillations that characterize the cardiac cycle.

RESULTS

Lacidipine treatment caused a significant reduction in clinic systolic and diastolic blood pressure, while the heart rate was not modified by the drug. Radial artery diameter and compliance were both reduced by lacidipine over the entire systolodiastolic blood pressure range.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic administration of lacidipine seems to reverse the increase in compliance observed in essential hypertension at the radial artery level. We suggest that lacidipine treatment can reverse an increase in the smooth muscle component in the arterial wall induced by hypertension.