Asymptomatic Obese Hypertensives and Need of Routine Echocardiography for Left Ventricular Mass Assessment and Treatment

BACKGROUND: Echocardiographic determination of Left Ventricle Mass (LVM) - an important marker of cardiovascular disease, has been given a lot of importance in clinical diagnosis and in planning of treatment. Clinically asymptomatic compensated hypertensives show some pathological findings which are indicative of left ventricular dysfunction. METHODS: The study population of 106 males, after a detailed clinical examination, were evaluated by echocardiography and were classified as per the body mass index classification of WHO Western Pacific Region in 2000 for Asian population. Fasting blood samples were taken to estimate blood sugar and lipid profile. RESULTS: It was observed that subjects in normal range of body mass index <45 years (23.68%) and >45 years (16.1%), subjects of overweight <45 years (15.7%) and >45 years (10.29%) and obese I and II<45 years (60.52%) and >45 years (73.52%). The comparison between left ventricular mass which was indexed to height(2.7) in subjects who were <45 years and >45years was observed to be statistically significant (p<0.03). On comparing LVM/ht(2.7) of normal BMI group with that of those with higher BMIs, it was noted to be significantly different (p<0.009), which was suggestive of adverse effects of increasing BMI on LVM. It was also observed that persons with increased BMIs showed changes in left ventricular geometry - 30.13% had concentric hypertrophy, 17.80% had concentric remodeling, 8.21% had eccentric hypertrophy and that 38.35% had normal left ventricle geometry. CONCLUSION: The present study therefore, indicated that it was better to do an echocardiographic screening of asymptomatic subjects who had even a marginal increase in blood pressure and BMI, to diagnose potential cardiac dysfunction.