Clinical experience with the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor captopril

1. Sixty-two patients (nineteen mild-moderate, forty-three severe hypertension) were treated with captopril. 2. Blood pressure was controlled long term (with/without diuretics/beta-adrenoreceptor blocking drugs) in sixteen out of nineteen patients with mild-moderate hypertension. Two patients complained of dysguesia. 3. Long term control (with/without other drugs) was achieved in thirty out of forty-three patients with severe or accelerated hypertension, many of whom had associated renal or renovascular disease. Side-effects were common: five rash, five dysguesia, two rash and dysguesia, two reversible agranulocytosis. 4. Six patients had a profound pressure fall after an initial dose of captopril 25 mg and one developed acute oliguric renal failure. Treatment should be commenced at low doses in severely hypertensive patients.