Background: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and the geometric shape of the left ventricle are well-established important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in the hypertensive population. Videodensitometry is an alternate echocardiographic approach to the study of myocardial structural and functional alterations in essential hypertension.
Objectives: To analyze the behavior of the ultrasonic videodensitometric parameter for various subgroups of a hypertensive population; first according to the severity of LVH (group A, without LVH; group B, with mild-to-moderate LVH; and group C, with severe LVH) and second according to geometric adaptation of left ventricle to pressure-volume overload of essential hypertension (group NG, normal geometry; group CR, concentric remodeling; group CH, concentric hypertrophy; and group EH, eccentric hypertrophy).
Methods: For 70 male, essential hypertensive patients and 32 normotensive healthy subjects matched for age (58 +/- 7 years) and sex as controls (group N) we performed ambulatory blood pressure measurements for the evaluation of 24 h mean systolic and diastolic blood pressures, conventional two-dimensional Doppler echocardiography to evaluate left ventricular performance and left ventricular mass index, and digitization of left ventricular parasternal long-axis echocardiographic images. For regions of interest selected within the septum and the posterior wall, the mean gray levels were calculated at end-systole and end-diastole. The resulting values were used to estimate the percentage cyclic variation index (CVI).
Results: The results according to left ventricular mass index were CVI for septum group N 34.7 + 16.3%; group A - 0.18 +/- 16%, group B - 13 +/- 19%, and group C - 22 +/- 12% (P < 0.001); and CVI of posterior wall, group N 38.2 +/- 15.4%, group A -0.75 +/- 16%, group B -16 +/- 16% and group C -16 +/- 13% (P< 0.001). According to left ventricular geometry CVI for septum were group NG 0.6 +/- 24%, group CR 1.9 +/- 17%; group CH - 25.4 +/- 18%, and group EH -17.1 +/- 20% (P < 0.01). CVI of posterior wall were group NH -5.8 + 24%, group CR 6.4 +/- 23%, group CH -29 +/- 20%, group EH -20 +/- 21 (P < 0.01).
Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that subjects with high left ventricular masses and those with concentric hypertrophy, which have the worst prognostic impacts, have the most significant changes in CVI. Furthermore, videodensitometric findings are quite different even among the subgroups with mild-to-moderate left ventricular hypertrophy and eccentric hypertrophy. Therefore this videodensitometric approach could provide some useful information for better definition of cardiovascular risk in hypertension.