The American journal of cardiology
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Left ventricular filling patterns in patients with systemic hypertension and left ventricular hypertrophy (the LIFE study). Losartan Intervention For Endpoint.
Abnormal left ventricular (LV) filling may exist in early stages of hypertension. Whether this finding is related to LV hypertrophy is currently controversial. This study was undertaken to assess relations between abnormal diastolic LV filling and LV geometry in a large series of hypertensive patients with electrocardiographic LV hypertrophy. ⋯ Multiple regression analysis revealed that increased LV mass correlated with prolonged IVRT, whereas LV mass and geometry were not associated with peak early LV filling velocity (E), peak atrial filling velocity (A) ratio or mitral valve E-peak deceleration time, although IVRT was found to be an independent correlate of E/A ratio and deceleration time. Thus, abnormal IVRT was highly prevalent in all LV geometric subgroups among hypertensive patients with electrocardiographic LV hypertrophy, even in those with normal LV geometry determined by echocardiography. We found that IVRT differed significantly among patient groups with different LV geometric patterns, primarily because of the association of IVRT to LV mass.