Effects of exercise training on systo-diastolic ventricular dysfunction in patients with hypertension: an echocardiographic study with tissue velocity and strain imaging evaluation.

There is a lack of detailed data regarding the effect of exercise training in pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of exercise training on left and right ventricular morphologic and functional parameters by means of conventional echocardiography and sensitive new echocardiographic techniques including tissue Doppler velocity and strain imaging, that were performed in pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients at baseline and at the end of a specific exercise training protocol for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. We selected 116 pharmacologically treated hypertensive patients who completed the exercise training protocol.

Obesity-related adjunctive systo-diastolic ventricular dysfunction in patients with hypertension: echocardiographic assessment with tissue Doppler velocity and strain imaging.

Very few data exist regarding the effect of obesity on both left and right systo-diastolic ventricular function in hypertensive patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the existence and extent of an obesity-related adjunctive depressive effect on left- and right-ventricular systo-diastolic dysfunction. This study compared non-obese with obese hypertensive patients and evaluated left- and right-ventricular morphological and functional parameters by means of conventional echocardiography and by two new sensitive echocardiographic techniques: tissue Doppler velocity and strain imaging.