Improvement of diastolic filling in hypertensive patients treated with cilazapril.

The aim of this study was to assess the behavior of the diastolic left ventricular (LV) filling pattern and cardiac hypertrophy after treatment with cilazapril. Twelve patients (9 male and 3 female) with mild to moderate essential hypertension, aged 46 +/- 14.1 years, were treated with cilazapril for 1 year. They underwent Doppler echocardiography at the beginning (I), after 6 months (II), and after 1 year (III) of treatment. The following parameters were evaluated: mean arterial pressure (MAP) automatically recorded for 24 h, interventricular septal and posterior wall thickness, LV and end-diastolic diameter, LV mass index, early (E) and late (A) diastolic filling flow velocities, and the ratio E/A. A significant reduction in LV hypertrophy and an improved diastolic filling pattern of the left ventricle was shown after 6 months of therapy with cilazapril; this improvement still remained after 1 year of therapy.