[Effectiveness of Lisinopril in the treatment of heart failure]

A prospective study was performed in patients (30 M, 16 F, mean age of 56.0 +/- 9.2 [42-73] years) with congestive heart failure to assess the efficacy of lisinopril during a 16 weeks treatment period. Changes in clinical signs, functional capacity, blood pressure, heart rate, echocardiographic parameters, exercise duration, laboratory data and quality of life were measured. After a 2-week run-in period starting daily dose of study drug was 5 mg, and an increase of medication was considered at 4 weeks. At the end of the study mean daily dose of lisinopril was 15.1 +/- 6.2 mg. Improvement of NYHA status by 2 grades was observed in 4 cases (9%), by 1 grade in 24 cases (51%), there was no change in 17 cases (38%), and worsening was observed in 1 case (2%). During the study both systolic (p = 0.001) and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.0006) decreased significantly, the changes in pulse rate were not significant. Left ventricular end systolic (p = 0.001) and end diastolic (p = 0.003) dimensions decreased, ejection fraction rose by 4.4% (p = 0.0002). One patient was removed from the study because of drug-induced cough. Comparison of all the laboratory data for pre and post-study periods did not reveal any significant difference. Patients treated with lisinopril improved significantly for clinical, haemodynamic, echocardiographic and quality of life parameters, with few adverse experiences, good tolerability and once-daily dose.