Left ventricular geometry, ambulatory blood pressure and extra-cardiac organ damage in untreated essential hypertension.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: Limited information is available on the association between left ventricular (LV) geometric patterns defined according to updated criteria and blood pressure (BP) levels and extra-cardiac organ damage (OD) in human hypertension. Thus, in untreated essential hypertensives we assessed the relationship between LV geometry, ambulatory BP and markers of vascular and renal OD.

METHODS: A total of 669 hypertensives were categorized in four groups according to LV geometric patterns defined by two sets of sex-specific criteria (i.e. LV mass indexed to body surface area and height) and by the relative wall thickness (RWT) partition value of 0.42. Ambulatory BP variables were derived from two 24-h monitoring sessions performed within 4 weeks.

RESULTS: Lower clinic and ambulatory BP values were associated with normal LV geometry, intermediate values with either LV concentric remodelling or eccentric LV hypertrophy (LVH) and higher values with concentric LVH, regardless of the criteria used to categorize these cardiac phenotypes. A decrease in nocturnal BP dip occurred from normal LV geometry to concentric LVH and this was associated with a parallel increase in the prevalence of carotid and renal OD, which was highest in concentric LVH. In a multivariate analysis age (beta=0.204, P<0.0001), followed by LDL cholesterol (beta=0.113, P=0.004), and night-time BP (beta=0.101, P=0.009) turned out to be the best independent correlates of RWT.

CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that LV geometric patterns, regardless of categorization criteria, reflect different degrees of BP load and subclinical extra-cardiac alterations and may be regarded, in addition to absolute values of LV mass, as a reliable marker of cardiovascular (CV) risk.