Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Patients with Chronic Bronchitis and Emphysema

The causes and prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy in 72 patients with an unequivocal clinical diagnosis of chronic bronchitis and emphysema associated with severe hypoxemia and hypercarbia were studied by inflated lung specimens (45 patients), postmortem coronary angiograms, specific heart chamber weights, and a review of hospital records. Twenty patients (28%) had left ventricular hypertrophy; 10 of these 20 patients had hypertensive or arteriosclerotic heart disease, or both. Two patients had occult aortic valve disease. Because the criteria used to determine that the left ventricular hypertrophy was caused by hypertensive cardiovascular disease were so stringent, probably some of the patients in whom the cause was assumed to be unknown actually had hypertensive cardiovascular disease. In most cases, left ventricular hypertrophy in patients with chronic bronchitis and emphysema results from associated disease states that are known to cause cardiac hypertrophy.