Contribution of echocardiography in the assessment of left diastolic dysfunction in elderly patients

The aim of the study was to evaluate the echocardiographic abnormalities in elderly hypertensive patients. We investigated 110 hypertensive patients aged between 65 and 80 years and we compared them with 40 normotensive elderly patients. Results. Prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy was higher in hypertensive patients than in the controls, especially in those with long history of hypertension. Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction was present in 74.54 % in the study group, reaching 88.15% for the patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. Impaired relaxation was the common pattern type, but there was a lack of correlation between symptoms, blood pressure values and the degree of cardiac dysfunction. The duration of high blood pressure, cardiac ischemic disease and diabetes were independent risk factors for left ventricle diastolic dysfunction. Conclusion: echocardiography is an important investigation for the diagnosis of cardiac dysfunction in elderly hypertensive patients, in order to guide the therapy and to reduce mortality.