Contribution of Ambulatory Pulsed Pressure in the Modification of the Left Ventricular Geometry of the African Black People

Introduction-Purpose: Pulsed pressure is recognized as an important predictor of cardiovascular risk. The purpose of this study was to identify a possible association between high ambulatory pulsed pressure and left ventricular geometry change in African black people. Material and methods: We conducted a bicentric, retrospective descriptive and analytical study that took place from 2010 to 2015 at the Abidjan Heart Institute and the Polyclinic Sainte Anne Marie in Abidjan. The people were selected from MAPA’s archive files. Those aged 18 years and over were included, all of whom had valid echocardiography and MAPA. The analyzed parameters concerned epidemiological data with age, gender and body surface area. The clinical data analyzed included systolic, diastolic, mean and 24-hours pulsed pressures. On the echocardiographic parameters, it was the evaluation of the ventricular mass indexed to the body surface. Results: A total of 177 patients records were selected. The mean age of the patients was 56.32 ± 10.51 years. There was a male predominance with a sex ratio of 1.15. The main cardiovascular risk factors found outside high blood pressure were dyslipidemia (06.87%) and obesity (13.7%). In clinical terms, hypertension was found in 75% of cases (n = 133) versus 25% (n = 44) of normotensive patients. These blood pressure profiles allowed us to classify our study population into two groups: hypertensives people and normotensives people. The hypertensives people had significantly higher mean pulsed pressure levels than the normotensives people. All normotensive patients had normal pulsed pressure. In the hypertensive population, the prevalence of high pulsed pressure was 31% (n = 41) versus 69% (n = 92) normal pulsed pressure. Concerning the relationship between 24 hour ambulatory pulsed pressure and left ventricular mass, hypertensives patients with a high ambulatory pulsed pressure had a significantly higher average indexed ventricular mass than the opposite groups (p = 0.039). Their ejection fraction was significantly lower than those of the opposite populations (p = 0.000). On the analysis of the correlation between the left ventricular mass and the tension profile, we noted in our series, a strong and significant correlation (r = 0.6342; p = 0.0000) between pulsed pressure and the ventricular geometry change. Conclusion: High ambulatory pulsed pressure remains an independent factor of change in left ventricular geometry in black people.