Cholesterol-lowing therapy with simvastatin in the hypertensive patients with hypercholesterolemia improves vascular endothelium-dependent relaxation

Objective:To investigate the effect of simvastatin on endothelium dependent dilational function in the hypertensive patients with hypercholesterolemia.Methods:With high resolution ultrasound, we study endothelium dependent dilational function in 44 subjects: 20 with normal blood cholesterol and 24 primary hypertensive patients with hypercholesterolemia.Results:In the hypertensive patients with hypercholesterolemia, flow mediated dilatation in arteries was more reduced compared with control group ( 2.99 ± 2.24 )% vs ( 7.01 ± 2.73 )%, P 0.01 , and there was significant difference in reaction to nitroglycerin between these groups ( 8.28 ± 5.12 )% vs ( 12.28 ± 4.84 )%, P 0.05 . Twenty four patients with hypertension and hypercholesterolemic were received cholesterol lowing therapy with simvastatin for 8 week, by which serum cholesterol reduced ( 6.39 ± 0.71 ) mmol/L to ( 5.23 ± 0.33 ) mmol/L (P 0.01 ). Flow mediated vasodilations improved significantly after simvastatin therapy ( 7.82 ± 1.29 )% vs ( 2.99 ± 2.24 )%, P 0.001 ). The vasodilation response to nitroglycerin had no significant change after cholesterol lowing therapy.Conclusion:Endothelium dependent vasodilation was impaired in the hypertensive patients with hypercholesterolemia, and cholesterol lowing therapy with simvastatin may improve impaired endothelium dependent vasodilation.