The use of sex-specific criteria increases sensitivity for detecting LVH in hypertension, where eccentric LVH is as common as concentric LVH and is exacerbated by obesity.
The use of different threshold values can significantly influence the assessment of prevalence of LVH in hypertension. The "mild" criteria, to our opinion, can overestimate the prevalence of structural LV remodelling, while implementation of sex-specific criteria for the definition of LVH increases the sensitivity of the method. In any way, eccentric LVH is as common for hypertension as a concentric LVH, the proportion of the latter increasing with age and more frequently observed in males. Concomitant obesity, in particular abdominal, significantly increases LVH prevalence.
Conrady et al. (Thu,) studied this question.