This study assessed the effects of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor cilazapril on the main haemostatic variables in 22 patients, of either sex, with newly diagnosed uncomplicated essential hypertension. In the patients and in 10 control subjects, plasma levels of thrombomodulin, β-thromboglobulin, D-dimer, tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1) had previously been measured. Only the levels of t-PA and PAI-1 were found to be higher than in controls. All these haemostatic evaluations were carried out after 6 and 12 months of treatment with an ACE inhibitor, cilazapril, 5 mg/day. This treatment significantly lowered the mean arterial pressure in the whole group from 133 to 106 mm Hg (after 6 months) and to 105 mm Hg (after 12 months), p < 0.05. No significant difference in any haemostatic parameters was observed after 6 and 12 months of treatment. The present study confirmed that treatment with cilazapril for 12 months lowers daytime ambulatory mean arterial pressure in patients with essential hypertension, without any significant increase in the tendency of blood to clot.

This study included only survivors of myocardial infarction. If prothrombotic mutations lead to severely altered plasma concentrations of hemostatic factors, this may have produced some early deaths and therefore an underestimation of the risk of developing myocardial infarction. Because of the extreme inclusion criteria we used, the study size has become too small to enable us to exclude reliably an effect of variants with low allele frequencies, such as FV Leiden and prothrombin 20210A mutation, that have previously been found to increase risk in young women [2,3]. Our results are therefore not inconsistent with a mild deleterious effect of these variants. Family history was a risk factor for myocardial infarction in young individuals without a cardiovascular risk factor, as a higher prevalence of familial myocardial infarction was found among cases (46.3%) compared with controls without any cardiovascular risk factor (30.9%), leading to an odds ratio of 1.9 (95% CI 0.9, 4.2). Whether this increased risk is the result of socio-economic circumstances and related lifestyle or an undiscovered genetic influence is unclear. In conclusion, in a subgroup of young survivors of myocardial infarction without any cardiovascular risk factor, we found no support for a causal role of nine prothrombotic genetic variants in the development of myocardial infarction.

This study assessed hemostatic effects of an HMC-CoA reductase inhibitor, atorvastatin, on different parameters in 32 hypercholesterolemic patients of both sexes. In the patients and in 25 control subjects, plasma levels of tissue-type plasminogen activator, plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI-1), D-dimer, prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 (F1 + 2), total cholesterol, triglycerides and fibrinogen had been measured. All these parameters were evaluated in patients after 6 and 12 months of treatment with atorvastatin at a dosage of 20 mg/day. This treatment significantly lowered the total cholesterol level in all patients. Moreover, after 6 months of atorvastatin treatment, PAI-1 and F1 + 2, which were both increased at baseline, were significantly reduced. This reduction continued after 12 months. The present results show that a reduction of hemostatic abnormalities, which exist in hypercholesterolemia, may be another important effect of the atorvastatin therapy.

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Background: The hemostatic system plays an important role in thrombotic lesions, which can complicate the clinical course of hypertensive patients. The aim of this study was to verify a possible activation of the blood clotting processes, the evaluation of two markers of thrombin activation in 62 hypertensive patients, with and without vascular complications, compared with a control group. Methods and Results: In 22 patients with newly diagnosed uncomplicated essential hypertension, in 40 hypertensive patients with clinically evident vascular complications (20 patients with controlled blood pressure and 20 with uncontrolled and high blood pressure) and in 20 normotensive sex- and age-matched subjects, two indexes of thrombin generation and action, namely prothrombin fragment 1 + 2 (F1 + 2) and fibrinopeptide A (FPA) were evaluated. The observed values show an increase of the F1 + 2 levels in patients with overt vascular complications; those with higher blood pressure, moreover, showed FPA levels higher than those with controlled blood pressure. Conclusions: These results seem to indicate that plasma F1 + 2 levels are significantly elevated, as a marker of a thrombosis-prone status, in patients with organic damage. Successively, with progress of hypertension and increasing blood pressure, the evidence of elevated FPA levels seems to indicate a clear prethrombotic situation which could turn into a thrombotic state.