[Usefulness of enalapril in congestive heart failure]

The usefulness of vasodilating agents in congestive heart failure depends on their ability to diminish left ventricular afterload; this effect does not necessarily persist with long-term treatment. The present study reports the clinical response of 16 patients in heart failure; the trial was double blind with enalapril and/or placebo during 24 weeks. Diagnoses were dilated cardiomyopathy in six, rheumatic heart disease in five, ischemic heart disease in four und hypertensive heart disease in one. Two patients on enalapril died of non cardiac causes and one was withdrawn from the study due to pregnancy. In those patients treated with enalapril the NYHA functional class improved from 2.9/0.8 to 1.1/0.4 (p less than 0.001), and the effort capacity increased from 545/171 to 888/160 seconds (p less than 0.01). Left ventricular systolic function evaluated by echocardiogram and Tc 99 m ventriculogram, radiologic size of the heart and echocardiographic left ventricular diameters showed no significant changes. There were no adverse clinical effects nor laboratory abnormalities. It is concluded that in this study, enalapril produced sustained clinical improvement in patients with heart failure and it was well tolerated during long-term treatment.