Effect of Benazepril on Plasma Brain Natriuretic Peptide Levels in Essential Hypertention Patients with Left Ventricular Hypertrophy

Objective To investigate the levels of plasma brain natriuretic peptide(BNP)in essential hypertention(EH)patients with left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH)before and after treatment with benazepril and identify the role of the plasma BNP in the reversal of left ventricular hypertrophy.Methods 122 patients were divided into three group,including 56 EH patients with LVH,66 EH patients without LVH and 36 cases with normal blood pressure.With the treament of 5~20 mg benazepril for 24 weeks,the serum BNP level and the left ventricular mass index(LVMI),ratio of E/A before and after treament was determined by two dimensional echocardiography.The correlation between the plasma BNP and LVMI,ratio of E/A were analyzed.Results The plasma BNP level in patients with EH were markedly higher than those in control subjects(P0.01),and it was significantly increased(P0.01)in hypertensive patients with LVH as composed with those without LVH.Benazepril treatment significantly decreased plasma BNP in patients with and without LVH.The plasma BNP positively correlated with LVMI in patients with EH and negatively correlated with ratio of E/A in patients with EH.Conclusion The plasma BNP levels could increase obviously in hypertensive patients,the increase of the BNP level is closely correlate with the LVH,furthermore,and the plasma BNP may be a marker for existence and reversal of LVH.