Influence of nebivolol on left ventricular remodeling in patients with arterial hypertension without chronic heart failure

In the recent years the problem of heart remodeling under drugs in patients with arterial hypertension (AH) have been extensively discussed. The P-blocker of the third generation nebivolol is known as a good anti hypertensive agent. The aim of our study was to evaluate effects of nebivolol on structural and functional parameters of cardiac remodeling in patients with AH without heart failure. We examined 28 patients with AH aged 49.99 +/- 5.26 years, with average arterial pressure 154.42 +/- 94.37 mm Hg and ejection fraction (EF) > 60%. All of them underwent routine clinical examination and echocardiography (EchoCG) with calculation of additional indexes, and than were given nebivolol 5 mg. After 3 months and 1 year of treatment with nebivolol we assessed anti hypertensive effect and the state of cardiac hemodynamics using EchoCG with calculation of remodeling indexes. After 3 months of therapy myocardial stresses (systolic - MSs and diastolic MSd) were reduced (from 154.28 +/- 11.65 to 132.77 +/- 11.37 U, p < 0.02, and from 184.17 +/- 14.1 to 159.87 +/- 13.34 U, p < 0.02, respectively), and diastolic function improved. After 1 year of anti hypertensive treatment LV diastolic function remained normal, while thickness of LV wall decreased (from 0.41 +/- 0.03 to 0.37 +/- 0.02 U, p=0.01). MS continued to decrease with high degree of significance. At the end of the first year we revealed decrease of MSs/ESVI from 9.66 +/- 1.77 at the start of treatment to 6.1 +/- 0.69 (p < 0.005) and MSd/EDVI from 3.21 +/- 0.4 to 2.57 +/- 0.38 (p < 0,005). Increase of EF/MSs (from 0.47 +/- 0.05 to 0.61 +/- 0.07, p < 0.02) was also revealed after 1 year treatment with nebivolol. There were 32% individuals in the studied group, who had concentric type of LV remodeling at the beginning, after 3 months this number decreased to 16%, and at the end of first year no patients had this type of remodeling. Thus, it was shown that nebivolol is able to interfere with the processes of structural and functional rearrangement of the myocardium, preventing development of systolic and diastolic dysfunction of the heart.