[Effects of metoprolol on myocardial performance in hypertensive patients during exercise (author's transl)]

In this study the effects of metoprolol administration (200 mg daily per os) to 20 hypertensive subjects (WHO stage I and II), as a 20-days course, on heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (BP) and myocardial performance evaluated by systolic time intervals, were studied both at rest and during exercise. This treatment was able to reduce significantly HR and BP in all the patients, both at rest and during exercise. After the 20 days treatment, the left ventricular ejection time corrected for HR (LVETc) did not show any significant change both at rest and during exercise. On the other hand, the pre-ejection period (PEP) changed at rest in all the subjects studied after metoprolol treatment, but increased significantly during exercise only in patients in the I WHO class and only at the highest work load (at 70 watts, from 63 +/- 2 to 78 +/- 7 msec, P ¿ 0.05). Furthermore, in the same group of patients the maximal work load increased significantly after metoprolol treatment (from 67.5 +/- 6 to 85 +/- 8 watts, P < 0.05).