Effects of drugs on cardiac and vascular function

72-9312/$ e see front mattera 2010 i:10.1016/j.artres.2010.10.004 Among the numerous risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases arterial hypertension is the main determinant of cardiovascular morbidity andmortality and it plays amajor role through its pathophysiological consequences and its high incidence determining cardiac and vascular functional and structural involvement. The impact of hypertension is compounded also because, on the one hand, numerous cardiovascular risk factors, such as dyslipidemia, insulin resistance, diabetes, obesity, lack of physical exercise, and certain genetic mutations are frequently associated with arterial hypertension, so potentiating the cardiovascular damage, while, on the other hand, hypertensive patients frequently display a greater number of cardiovascular risk factors, compared with normotensive subjects. Both in normotensives and in hypertensives the cardiovascular system may be considered as a hydraulic model consisting of a pump connected to a vascular systemwith two components, the macrocirculation and the microcirculation. Blood pressure curves of such hydraulic system consist of a steady component (mean arterial pressure) and a pulsatile component (pulse pressure). The heart pumpejects theblood in a cyclic manner into the large arteries. Pressure and flow fluctuate throughout the arterial tree during the cardiac