Universidade Federal Fluminense

Objective – To compare blood pressure response to dynamic exercise in hypertensive patients taking trando-lapril or captopril. Methods – We carried out a prospective, randomized, blinded study with 40 patients with primary hypertension and no other associated disease. The patients were divided into 2 groups (n=20), paired by age, sex, race, and body mass index, and underwent 2 symptom-limited exercise tests on a treadmill before and after 30 days of treatment with captopril (75 to 150 mg/day) or trandolapril (2 to 4 mg/day). Results – The groups were similar prior to treatment (p<0.05), and both drugs reduced blood pressure at rest (p<0.001). During treatment, trandolapril caused a greater increase in functional capacity (+31%) than cap-topril (+17%; p=0.01) did, and provided better blood pressure control during exercise, observed as a reduction in the variation of systolic blood pressure/MET (trandola-pril: 10.7±1.9 mmHg/U vs 7.4±1.2 mmHg/U, p=0.02; cap-topril: 9.1±1.4 mmHg/U vs 11.4±2.5 mmHg/U, p=0.35), a reduction in peak diastolic blood pressure (trandolapril: 116.8±3.1 mmHg vs 108.1±2.5 mmHg, p=0.003; captopril: 118.2±3.1 mmHg vs 115.8±3.3 mmHg, p=0.35), and a re-duction in the interruption of the tests due to excessive ele-vation in blood pressure (trandolapril: 50 % vs 15%, p=0.009; captopril: 50 % vs 45%, p=0.32). Conclusion – Monotherapy with trandolapril is more effective than that with captopril to control blood pressure during exercise in hypertensive patients. Key words: exercise test, arterial hypertension, antihy-pertensive therap