Effect of long-term antihypertensive therapy on cardiac anatomy in patients with essential hypertension.

M-mode echocardiography was used in 12 patients with essential hypertension to study changes in cardiac anatomy during long-term therapy with hydrochlorothiazide (50 to 100 mg) and alpha-methyldopa (500 to 1,750 mg). Echocardiographic examination was performed after six weeks of treatment with hydrochlorothiazide alone and after four to six weeks, six months, and nine months of treatment with both hydrochlorothiazide and alpha-methyldopa. Hydrochlorothiazide alone induced a small, and not significant, change in blood pressure (from 157 +/- 16 (SD)/105 +/- 9 to 150 +/- 14/101 +/- 5 mm Hg). Changes in echocardiographic parameters of cardiac anatomy were not observed during short-term diuretic therapy. Addition of alpha-methyldopa further reduced blood pressure (to 133 +/- 11/90 +/- 6 mm Hg, p less than 0.001), which was maintained throughout the study. Gradual decreases in diastolic septal thickness (from 10.9 +/- 1.1 to 9.5 +/- 1.0 mm, p less than 0.01), relative wall thickness (from 0.40 +/- 0.06 to 0.36 +/- 0.06, p less than 0.05) and left ventricular cross-sectional area (from 18.9 +/- 2.9 to 17.3 +/- 2.6 cm2, p less than 0.05) were observed. Posterior wall thickness did not change significantly during the study. The results provide evidence for regression of echocardiographic parameters of cardiac muscle mass during long-term antihypertensive treatment with a diuretic and a centrally-acting sympatholytic drug. Regression of left ventricular mass was not clearly related to changes in casual blood pressure. However, patients who showed a decrease in septal thickness tended to have a greater decrease in systolic blood pressure than those in whom septal thickness did not change during therapy. Moreover, patients in whom a decrease in left ventricular transverse dimension was observed, had a greater decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure than those in whom left ventricular diastolic dimension did not change.