Echocardiography is a versatile and cost-effective diagnostic modality for assessing target organ damage in selected elderly patients with hypertension.
The evaluation of target organ damage attributable to hypertension is a crucial component of risk stratification to determine the urgency and intensity of treatment as well as the assessment of overall prognosis. In the cardiovascular system, the spectrum of hypertensive damage includes left ventricular and vascular hypertrophy, heart failure secondary to decreased systolic function, impaired left ventricular diastolic relaxation, reduced left ventricular diastolic compliance, coronary microvascular disease, left atrial abnormality, and dilatation and dissection of the aorta. Echocardiography plays an important role and is frequently the diagnostic modality of choice in these conditions. It provides reliable measures of systolic performance, diastolic function, arterial compliance, atrial and ventricular chamber size, and ventricular mass—all of which may play important roles in decisions about treatment and prognosis. The versatility of echocardiography in these conditions, however, does not justify its routine use in all hypertensive patients. In selected patients and especially in the elderly, where the prevalence of hypertensive target organ damage is high, echocardiography is cost‐effective in the evaluation and management of hypertensive heart disease.
George A. Mensah (Wed,) studied this question.