Relationship between left ventricular mass and serum cholesterol level in the untreated hypertensive.

Objective: To study the relationship between serum cholesterol level and left ventricular mass for a population of untreated hypertensive patients.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Patients: We studied 273 untreated hypertensive patients without associated diseases consecutively referred for evaluation of blood pressure.

[Echocardiographic measurement of left ventricular mass associating data of the M and 2D modes].

Calculation of left ventricular mass by M mode echo is based on the assumption that the geometry of the left ventricle is an ellipsoid, the long axis of which is twice that of its short axis. The hypothesis in not always true and often leads to overestimation of the ventricular mass. The authors propose a method combining M mode data (end diastolic dimension, septal and posterior wall thickness) and 2D measurement of the left ventricular long axis: the left ventricular mass was measured by Devereux's and the authors' methods in 185 hypertensives.

Prognostic value of ambulatory measurement of the timing of Korotkoff sounds in elderly hypertensives: a pilot study.

Alteration in the physical properties of the large arteries is probably an important contributory factor in morbidity and mortality in the elderly as well as in patients with hypertension or diabetes. We have developed a simple method based on the ambulatory measurement of the timing of Korotkoff sounds (QKD interval), together with blood pressure, to assess these properties. We report its prognostic value in a retrospective survey of elderly hypertensives.

Left ventricular mass is better correlated with arising blood pressure than with office or occasional blood pressure.

The peak incidence of cardiovascular complications in the morning points to a possible role of the abrupt increase in blood pressure on arising. However, there is as yet no firm evidence linking the extent of the elevation in blood pressure on arising and the risk of cardiovascular complications. We sought a correlation between blood pressure on arising and left ventricular mass in a population of 181 previously untreated hypertensive patients.

Ambulatory blood pressure and left ventricular hypertrophy.

The relation between ambulatory blood pressure and left ventricular mass has been studied with three main aims. The first aim was to validate this new technique for measuring blood pressure. Most studies have shown that the left ventricular mass is correlated more closely to the ambulatory blood pressure than it is to the office blood pressure.