Sanjay K Gupta*, Surendra H Bodakhe

ABSTRACT

Arterial stiffness (AS) and elevated pulse pressure (ePP) is major cause of stroke, cardiac failure, some cardiovascular diseases at any age of the populations. Some class antihypertensives are abused to increase or have no effect in reducing the PP and AS. In present study, effect of lisinopril and hydrochlorthiazide (HTZ) on AS and ePP is compared. Rats were divided into four groups, except group-I, all the rats were administered high salt water for eight weeks for the induction of hypertension. Weakly changes in body weight of rats, systolic and diastolic pressure were recorded. After eight weeks, hypertensive rats found with PP ? 50 mmHg were isolated for study grouped and followed treatment with test drugs for 21 days. Group-I was untreated normal rats and group II, III and IV were kept on high salt water (NaCl 4% w/v) along with the treatment. Group-2 served as control, group III and IV were treated with lisinopril (20 mg/kg/day, p.o.) and HTZ (12.5 mg/kg/day, p.o), respectively. Weekly changes in blood pressure parameters were recorded and after 30 minutes of the last dose, MAP, PP and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were determined. Both drugs produced a significant reduction in hypertension, however, only lisinopril induced a significant decrease in PWV (P < 0.001) with effective reduction in PP (P < 0.01). These findings indicate that ACE inhibitors induce a decrease in AS and ePP independently to blood pressure, therefore ACE inhibitors can be a preferred class of hypertensive for treatment of patients with a condition of ePP and increased AS. Keywords: Lisinopril, pulse pressure, arterial stiffness, pulse wave velocity, tail cuff method.