Reversal of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Following Treatment of Hypertension with Isradipine

In order to complement earlier short-term observations, we studied the effects of isradipine (1.25 or 2.5 mg twice daily) on blood pressure as well as its action in reversing cardiac hypertrophy in 25 moderately hypertensive patients. We observed that the treatment produced short-term (3 month) and longer-term (9 month) control of blood pressure [decreases in mean arterial pressure (MAP) from 128 +/- 2.3 to 112 +/- 2.7 mm Hg and to 105.5 +/- 2.9 mm Hg; p less than 0.001] while heart rate remained constant throughout the study (from 76.6 +/- 2.3 to 74.7 +/- 2.4 beats/min; NS). Reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) obtained after 3 months of treatment (LV mass index from 173.7 +/- 8.8 to 135.7 +/- 4.5 g/m2; p less than 0.001) was accentuated with continued therapy (to 131.0 +/- 4.0 and 124.4 +/- 3.1 g/m2 at 6 and 9 months, respectively; p less than 0.01). These results indicate that significant regression of LVH can be obtained with short-term treatment of hypertension with isradipine and that this effect will be fully obtained with longer-term (9 month) therapy.