Rheological changes in hypertensive patients treated with Ramipril

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Rosenson, Robert S. | Hafner, Joanne M.

Affiliations: Preventive Cardiology Center and Lipoprotein and Hemorheology Research Facility, Section of Cardiology, Rush–Presbyterian–St. Luke’s Medical Center, 1725 W. Harrison Street, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA

Abstract: This study was designed to characterize blood viscosity changes in 13 patients with mild to moderate diastolic hypertension treated with ramipril monotherapy for three months. The ramipril dose was titrated from 2.5 to 20 mg daily to achieve a diastolic blood pressure of less than 90 mm Hg. All patients received a stable dose of ramipril for three months. Viscosity measurements were made at 37°C with the Mettler Contraves LS‐40 microviscometer. Fibrinogen was determined by the Clauss method by averaging three separately acquired plasma samples. The systolic blood pressure (mean±standard deviation) was lowered from 141.2±9.1 to 129.2±11.2 mm Hg (p=0.005) and the diastolic blood pressure was lowered from 95.2±4.9 to 84.2±7.3 mm Hg (p=0.0001). In 13 patients with mild to moderate diastolic hypertension, blood pressure reduction with ramipril was accompanied by no significant changes in blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, serum viscosity or fibrinogen.

Keywords: Blood viscosity, plasma viscosity, fibrinogen, hypertension, rheology, ramipril

Journal: Clinical Hemorheology and Microcirculation, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 41-46, 1997