Nitroprusside abolishes increased arterial wave reflections from methoxamine-induced hypertension

Afterload reduction has been considered to be of primary importance in the treatment of hypertensive patients. It has not been clear how the central aorta and the peripheral vasculature interact to bring this about. The authors examined this aspect in terms of wave reflections in open-chest anesthetized dogs. Results show that nitroprusside effectively reduced the increased wave reflection from hypertension induced by methoxamine administration