Key Points
- To determine whether increased left ventricular mass in patients with essential hypertension is accompanied by a proportional enlargement of the left coronary artery main trunk.
- Assessed 26 hypertensive patients (14 with left ventricular hypertrophy [LVH] and 12 without LVH) alongside 10 normotensive controls matched for age, sex, and body surface area.
- Performed transthoracic echocardiography to calculate left ventricular mass index (LVMI) via the Devereux formula and measured left coronary artery (LCA) main trunk diameter at end-diastole.
- LVMI was significantly higher in hypertensives with LVH (144 ± 21 g/m²) than in hypertensives without LVH (113 ± 13 g/m²) and controls (98 ± 10 g/m²; P < 0.01).
- LCA main trunk diameter was similar across groups (0.48 ± 0.1 cm in LVH, 0.48 cm in non-LVH, and 0.46 cm in controls) and showed no significant correlation with LVMI (r = 0.21, P = not significant).
- LCA trunk diameter correlated significantly only with body surface area (r = 0.5, P < 0.01) and left ventricular end-systolic and end-diastolic diameters (r = 0.5 and r = 0.4, P < 0.05).
Structured PICO
Is the increase in left ventricular mass in essential hypertensives associated with a proportional increase in the diameter of the left coronary artery trunk?
PPopulation36 subjects including 26 essential hypertensives (14 with left ventricular hypertrophy [LVH] defined as LVMI >=134 g/m2 in men and >=110 g/m2 in women, and 12 without LVH) and 10 normotensive controls.
OOutcomeCorrelation between left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and diameter of the left coronary artery (LCA) main trunksurrogate
In essential hypertension, the increase in left ventricular mass is not accompanied by a proportional increase in epicardial coronary artery diameter, which may partially explain impaired coronary flow reserve in LVH.