Lisinopril reverses left ventricular hypertrophy through improved aortic compliance.

We treated with nifedipine or lisinopril 38 essential hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. The study had a single-blind crossover design; nifedipine or lisinopril was given for the first 24 weeks, and then patients were crossed over to the other antihypertensive agent for another 24 weeks. Both nifedipine and lisinopril significantly decreased mean arterial pressure to the same extent. Although lisinopril decreased left ventricular mass index more rapidly than nifedipine, 48 weeks of antihypertensive treatment with nifedipine or lisinopril reduced the extent of left ventricular hypertrophy to the same level. Stepwise multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy may be mainly due to a reduction in mean arterial pressure during the 24-week nifedipine treatment and due to an improvement of aortic compliance during the lisinopril treatment. Both nifedipine and lisinopril are effective in the reversal of hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy; however, the agents have disparate actions on hemodynamic factors.