The influence of antihypertensive drug treatment on the prevention and regression of left ventricular hypertrophy.

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has been recognized as an important cardiovascular risk factor. Hypertensive disease is the most frequent background of LVH and it is generally felt that anti-hypertensive treatment should not only lower blood pressure but also cause regression of LVH. In the present survey the patho-physiology of LVH, its measurements and animal models used to study LVH are briefly discussed. Subsequently, the effects of various drugs in animal models and in human hypertensives are reviewed. It has been shown repeatedly that various types of antihypertensive drugs show differential activities on the prevention or regression of LVH. It is not only the lowering of blood pressure which determines the anti-LVH activity, but also the interaction of drugs with neuro-endocrine mechanisms such as the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system and the sympathetic nervous system.