Relevance of left and right ventriculars hypertrophy to the cause of death in arterial hypertension (according to autopsy data)

The authors studied data from autopsy reports of 643 individuals who had suffered from arterial hypertension during their lifetime. Cases that could be another cause of left or right ventricular hypertrophy were excluded from the study. Hypertrophy of the left and right ventricular walls was conditionally divided into two degrees: moderate left ventricular hypertrophy – 1st degree (1.3–2.0 cm), pronounced – 2nd degree (2.1 cm and more); moderate right ventricular hypertrophy – 1st degree (0.4–0.6 cm), pronounced – 2nd degree (0.7 cm and more). According to autopsy findings, arterial hypertension leads to left ventricular hypertrophy in all cases, with moderate hypertrophy being detected slightly more frequently than marked hypertrophy. Right ventricular hypertrophy was not detected in only 13% of cases, with severe hypertrophy predominating over moderate hypertrophy. The most frequent causes of death in arterial hypertension are acute heart failure (60.4%) and cerebral hemorrhage (37.2%). Myocardial infarction was detected in 1.2% of cases, other causes also in 1.2% of cases. Myocardial mass and degree of hypertrophy of both ventricles of the heart directly influence the causes of death in arterial hypertension. In degree 2 left ventricular hypertrophy, cardiac death develops 3.7 times more often in men and 3.0 times more often in women compared with cerebral causes. In 2nd degree right ventricular hypertrophy, cardiac cause of death compared to cerebral cause predominates 2.96 times more often in men and 2.37 times more often in women. Cerebral cause of death significantly prevails over cardiac cause of death in moderate hypertrophy of both left and right ventricles of the heart.