[Improvement in diastolic function in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy with inhibitors of the angiotensin converting enzyme].

An open and multicentric study was conducted with 66 patients with mild to severe diastolic arterial hypertension and echocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy, the evolution of diastolic function, by means of doppler transmitral flow echocardiography, under treatment with ramipril, an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor, at a dose of 2.5 and 5 mg/day, or combined with a diuretic, after three and six months of treatment. Despite not obtaining the tensional control in all patients, a decrease in the mass, both in absolute values and mass index, was obtained. This decrease was observed both in male and female patients from the first three months, which went on until the sixth month, thus suggesting an independent action of the hemodynamic load decrease for the obtention of this effect. There was also a change in the ventricular geometry with a displacement of patients from concentric enlargement to normal, remodelling and eccentric enlargement. The diastolic function improved both for the early and for the late maximal filling velocity, relationship between both, and deceleration time, although the time during which this improvement occurred was different for each parameter, thus indicating the different influence of the dynamic and structural factors on these parameters. No correlation was found between the improvement in diastolic function and hypertrophy regression. We can conclude that ramipril is useful for the control of the left ventricular hypertrophy and diastolic function, irrespective of arterial tension values.