The Effect Of Valsartan On Brachial-ankle-artery Pulse Wave Velocity In Patients Of Coronary Heart Disease Combined With Hypertension

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the angiotensinⅡreceptor blockers valsartan is superior to calcium channel blocker amlodipine, an equivalent antihypertensive drug, in improving arterial elasticity of patients with coronary heart disease combined with hypertension.METHODS Brachial-ankle-artery pulse wave velocity (ba-PWV), peripheral branchial pressure and central aortic blood pressure were measured in all 75 patients included in this study. All of them were diagnosed CHD combined with hypertension. They were randomly divided into 2 groups, receiving daily 160mg of valsartan (valsartan group, n=35) or 5-10mg amlodipine (amlodipine group, n=40), to control BP.24 weeks later, ba-PWV, peripheral branchial pressure and central aortic BP were measured again.RESULTS No statistical differences were detected in coronary artery Gensini score, left ventricular ejection fraction, mean heart rate and therapy medication type between valsartan group and amlodipine group (P>0.05). Dramatic decrease of systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and pulse blood pressure of brachial artery as well as central artery were achieved in both groups. The levels of central artery BP and brachial BP controlled by valsartan were similar to amlodipine. There were no significant differences in ba-PWV between two groups at baseline (12.6±2.6 vs 2.1±2.6, P>0.05), however a significant decrease was observed in valsartan group after 24 weeks (12.6±2.6 vs 10.8±1.9, P<0.01), while no significant changes appeared in amlodipine group (12.1±2.6 vs 11.4±2.7, P>0.05).CONCLUSIONS Comparing to amlodipine, a more decrease of brachial-ankle-artery pulse wave velocity were observed in valsartan group while maintain a similar BP decrease.