ACE-inhibitors and coronary microcirculation

Arterial hypertension is the most frequent cause of a disturbance of coronary microcirculation. Inspite of having normal epicardial coronary arteries, patients with arterial hypertension often have symptoms of angina pectoris and a positive exercise tolerance test. The angina pectoris-symptoms in patients with arterial hypertension are due to functional and structural alterations of the coronary microcirculation. Consequently, an antihypertensive therapy should not only aim at lowering blood pressure and reversing myocardial hypertrophy, but also improve coronary microcirculation in order to avoid the consequences of chronic ischemia on the myocardium. Until now, only experimental studies have indicated that antihypertensive therapy can improve coronary flow reserve. To determine to what extent under clinical conditions coronary flow reserve can be improved, in hypertensive patients maximal coronary blood flow, minimal coronary resistance, and coronary reserve (Dipyridamol) were studied before and after a long-term antihypertensive treatment (9-12 months) with the ACE-inhibitor enalapril (10-20 mg/d). To assess the chronic effects rather than the acute effects of the antihypertensive pharmacon, the coronary microcirculation was studied after intermission of medical therapy for a period of 1 week. Along with a decrease in LV muscle mass by about 8%, coronary reserve was improved after enalapril by 48%. It is likely that the observed increase in coronary reserve is related to the reversal of structural vascular abnormalities at the level of the coronary microcirculation. Consequently, it seems that reparation of hypertensive remodeling of the coronary microcirculation can be induced by ACE-inhibitor therapy.