In-treatment midwall and endocardial fractional shortening predict cardiovascular outcome in hypertensive patients with preserved baseline systolic ventricular function: The Losartan Intervention for Endpoint reduction study

Kristian Wachtell*, Eva Gerdts, Vittorio Palmieri, Michael H. Olsen, Markku S. Nieminen, Vasilios Papademetriou, Kurt Boman, Björn Dahlöf, Gerard P. Aurigemma, Jens E. Rokkedal, Richard B. Devereux

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

    Abstract

    Background: Endocardial fractional shortening (EFS) and midwall shortening (MWS) are impaired in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. However, it remains unknown whether improvement of left ventricular systolic function during treatment reduces cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in hypertensive patients with preserved left ventricular function. Methods: Echocardiograms were performed yearly in 840 hypertensive patients with electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy and baseline left ventricular ejection fraction more and equal to 50%. Baseline and annual in-treatment levels of EFS, MWS and blood pressure (BP) were related to occurrence of a composite endpoint (cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction or stroke) and the component endpoints during 3914 patient-years of follow-up. Results: Adjusting for in-treatment BP, left ventricular mass, relative wall thickness and randomized treatments, higher in-treatment EFS was associated with lower risk of myocardial infarction (by 35% per standard deviation [4.5%], P = 0.004) and heart failure (49%, P < 0.001), but in-treatment stress-corrected EFS predicted only incident heart failure (41%, P = 0.014) but not other endpoints. Higher in-treatment MWS tended to be associated with lower risk of composite endpoints (16% per standard deviation [1.8%], P = 0.07) and was significantly associated with myocardial infarction (33%, P = 0.004) and heart failure (43%, P < 0.001). Higher in-treatment stress-corrected MWS was associated with lower rates of myocardial infarction (35%, P = 0.021) and heart failure (50%, P = 0.001). Conclusion: These results support a prognostic role for left ventricular myocardial function, as estimated by stress-corrected MWS, during aggressive BP lowering in hypertensive patients with preserved ejection fraction at baseline evaluation.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1541-1546
    Number of pages6
    JournalJournal of Hypertension
    Volume28
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jul 2010

    Keywords

    • left ventricular hypertrophy
    • mortality
    • systolic performance

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