Vascular protection with cilazapril in hypertension

Anatomical changes of arteries and arterioles secondary to hypertension explain most of the late complications of this disease. Therefore, a series of experiments was performed to characterize the vascular protective effects of cilazapril in experimental hypertension. These experiments aimed to answer three types of questions: (a) In which vascular bed is cilazapril effective? (b) Are the vascular changes induced by cilazapril associated with functional effects? (c) Is the effect of cilazapril only preventive or can cilazapril also be effective when hypertension is already present? Our results show that cilazapril is acting on nearly every vascular bed. Its vascular morphological effects (decrease of vascular hypertrophy) are associated with functional changes such as improvements of coronary or cerebral vascular reserves. Cilazapril is active either as a preventive treatment or given when hypertension is already present.