Abstract

Background
Inflammation plays an important role in hypertension and in atherosclerosis. Inflammatory changes induced even in prehypertensive subjects can lead to increased arterial stiffness. The effects of perindopril on both inflammatory and aortic elasticity markers were tested in hypertensive patients.
Material and Method
One hundred nine hypertensive patients not taking any antihypertensive therapy were included in the study. Aortic strain, aortic distensibility, aortic stiffness index, and inflammatory markers, including CRP, IL-1alpha IL-1beta, and TNF-alpha, were measured in all patients before and after twenty weeks of perindopril therapy.
Results
While aortic strain and distensibility showed statistically significant increases with perindopril therapy, the aortic stiffness index and inflammatory markers were found to decrease.
Conclusions
Perindopril therapy resulted in an improvement in aortic elastic properties. There was also an attenuation of inflammatory status of the patients as reflected by lower inflammatory marker levels compared with pretreatment values.

Keywords: Inflammation - metabolism, Hypertension - physiopathology, Elasticity - drug effects, Biological Markers - metabolism, Aorta - physiopathology, Antihypertensive Agents - therapeutic use, Perindopril - therapeutic use