Impaired brachial artery flow-mediated dilation in patients with essential hypertension

Objective:To explore changes of endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in essential hypertensive patients. Methods; By using high-resolution ultrasonography, vascular endothelial function of 61 patients with essential hypertension and 38 subjects as controls were studied in the form of brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD). Results: ①The level of brachial artery FMD showert a progressive reduction between the normal control group, phase Ⅰ and phase Ⅱessential hypertension groups ( P 0. 05 or 0. 01). ② The time of maximum FMD were more remarkable delayed in phase I and phase II essential hypertension groups than that in the normal control group(P 0. 05 and 0. 01). Conclusion: There are evident dysfunctions of vascular endothelium in the essential hypertensive patients, and more worse as the hypertension progressing.