Why the study?
Does acute captopril administration reduce forearm vascular resistance and systemic blood pressure in hypertensive patients?
Does acute captopril administration reduce forearm vascular resistance and systemic blood pressure in hypertensive patients?
Captopril acutely lowers blood pressure and dilates both veins and arterioles through mechanisms independent of alpha1-adrenergic receptor blockade.
Should not change hypertension practice; leaves open mechanistic insights into ACE inhibitor vasodilation.
In eight hypertensive patients, forearm vascular tone was assessed by water plethysmography following inhibition of angiotensin II-converting-enzyme (ACE) activity with captopril. Acute captopril administration increased venous distensibility (VV30) and decreased forearm vascular resistance (FVR), while it lowered systemic blood pressure (BP). Alpha-one adrenergic receptor blockade by prazosin did not prevent captopril from decreasing vascular tone or lowering blood pressure (BP). Thus, captopril dilated both veins and arterioles. The primary mechanism of captopril's acute antihypertensive action did not involve inhibition of alpha1-adrenergic receptor activity. Moreover, captopril and prazosin together produced a greater reduction in BP and peripheral resistance than occurred with either agent alone.
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Johns et al. (1984) studied this question.
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