Decreasing arterial stiffness and/or wave reflections independently of mean arterial pressure: Effect of antihypertensive drugs (Part 1)

Abstract

Change in arterial stiffness with drugs is a major end point in clinical trials, although evidence for arterial stiffness as a therapeutic target still needs to be confirmed. Drugs which affect arterial stiffness include antihypertensive drugs, mostly blockers of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. Other drugs will be addressed in Chap. 40. Whether the reduction in arterial stiffness after antihypertensive treatment is only due to the blood pressure (BP) lowering which unloads the stiff components of the arterial wall such as collagen, or additional BP-independent effects are involved, has been largely debated. Currently, an increasing body of evidence, including theoretical aspects of arterial mechanics, long-term observational studies in humans and recent meta-analyses of double-blind, randomized, controlled trials, suggests that only part of aortic stiffness could be reduced through the normalization of BP by pharmacological treatment, and further reduction of aortic stiffness would require arterial structural changes, including reduction in collagen density and rearrangement of the wall materials. Mechanistic pharmacological studies are required to demonstrate that novel pharmacological classes have true de-stiffening properties.