Left ventricular mass changes with nicardipine therapy in essential hypertension

Eighteen hypertensive patients (13 males, 5 females; age 48 +/- 13; diastolic blood pressure greater than 95 mmHg), either previously untreated or who had been off treatment for more than 3 months, underwent M-mode echocardiography before (DO) and after (D90) 3 months of nicardipine therapy (60-90 mg/day). All echocardiograms were read blind, and left ventricular mass (LVM) was calculated (Devereaux's formula). Blood pressure was significantly reduced after 3 months from 167 +/- 15/102 +/- 8 mmHg on DO to 152 +/- 16/92 +/- mmHg on D90 (p less than 0.001). The reduction in LVM was not significant: 266 +/- 95 g on DO, 247 +/- 78 g on D90. There was a trend to a higher (although nonsignificant) LVM reduction in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy at entry (-11%, n = 11) than in patients without left ventricular hypertrophy (-2%), n = 7).