Microalbuminuria and global myocardial function in patients with essential hypertension [correction of hypertensive].

Introduction: The myocardial performance index, Tei index, is a relatively new echocardiography indice which is related to parameters which express both the systolic and diastolic myocardial function. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the possible correlation of Tei index to microalbuminuria, which is an indice of kidney target-organ damage in hypertensive patients.

Materials And Methods: We evaluated 9680 consecutive patients (mean age 55.