Left Ventricular Function Assessed by One-Point Carotid Wave Intensity in Newly Diagnosed Untreated Hypertensive Patients.

Objectives: To investigate whether newly diagnosed untreated hypertensive patients show higher left ventricular (LV) contractility, as assessed by traditional echocardiographic indices and carotid wave intensity (WI) parameters, including amplitude of the peak during early (W ) and late systole (W ).

Methods: A total of 145 untreated hypertensive patients were compared with 145 age- and sex-matched normotensive subjects. They underwent comprehensive echocardiography and WI analysis.

Arterial-atrial coupling in untreated hypertension.

Recently, there has been growing interest in an interplay of vascular mechanics and heart function (arterial-ventricular-atrial coupling). The contribution of arterial stiffness (AS) to left atrial (LA) enlargement is unclear. The aim of this study was to verify whether the association between carotid AS and LA volume in untreated arterial hypertension is independent of such confounders as age, sex, body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), left ventricular (LV) diastolic and systolic function.