Assessment of Effect of Atenolol and Enalapril on Trace Elements in Pre and Postmenopausal Women with Essential Hypertension

ABSTRACT

Background:  Studies conducted in recent times have reported the involvement of trace elements in the pathogenesis of certain cardiovascular diseases particularly hypertension. So, the present study was planned to evaluate the influence of the antihypertensive drugs enalapril and atenolol on blood pressure and serum concentration of zinc, magnesium, lead, aluminum and vanadium. Methods:  For the study, selection of 30 pre and 30 post-menopausal women patients with mild to moderate essential hypertension and 60 normal controls for both the groups was done.  The age group of premenopausal hypertensive women was 30-50 years and for postmenopausal hypertensive women it was 50-70 years. Atenolol (10-40 mg/day) was prescribed to half of the patients from both the study groups and the other half was prescribed Enalapril (5-20mg/day). The assessment of trace elements was done during the follow up before and after 3, 6, 12 months of treatment. Results: Effectiveness of both the drugs, Atenolol and Enalapril were found equal in deceasing blood pressure. A significant increase in the serum level of lead (P<0.05), significant decrease in the level of Magnesium (P<0.05), non-significant increase in the level of zinc and no change in the level of Vanadium and aluminum was observed in newly diagnosed pre-and postmenopausal women with essential hypertension as compared to normal control. Conclusions: There is association of high level of blood lead and low level of magnesium to essential hypertension in pre and postmenopausal women without any renal disease. High plasma vanadium levels were not found in hypertensives with normal renal functions with respect to control.