The Impact of Hypertension on Vascular Endothelium Function in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Objective To study the influences of hypertension on vascular endothelium function in patients with coronary heart disease. Methods Ninety patients with coronary heart disease were enrolled and diverged according to whether patients were complicated with hypertension. Group A （n38）was the patients of coronary heart disease alone; group B （n52） are patients of coronary heart disease complicated with hypertension, group C（n12） are healthy subjects serving as control. The brachial artery flow mediated vasodilatation （FMD） and nitroglycerin-induced vasodilatation （NID） were investigated using ultrasonography. Plasma endothelin （ET） and nitric oxide（NO） were measured. Results FMD in both group A and B was significantly lower than that of control（P＜0.01）, while ET level was greater （P＜0.01）. Group B had the lowest FMD and NO with highest plasma ET among the 3 groups. FMD was positively related with NO （r0.43, P＜0.01） and negatively related with SBP, LDL and ET （r-0.52, r-0.36 and r-0.47, all P＜0.01）. Conclusion Hypertension aggravates the endothelial dysfunction in patients with coronary heart disease manifested by further decreases in flow mediated dependent vasodilatation, greater increase in plasma endothelin and lower plasma NO.