Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (Apr 2002)

Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Evaluation in Obese Hypertensive Patients: Effect of Left Ventricular Mass Index Criteria

  • Eduardo Cantoni Rosa,
  • Valdir Ambrósio Moysés,
  • Ricardo Cintra Sesso,
  • Frida Liane Plavnik,
  • Fernando Flexa Ribeiro,
  • Nárcia E. B. Kohlmann,
  • Artur Beltrame Ribeiro,
  • Maria Tereza Zanella,
  • Osvaldo Kohlmann Jr.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/S0066-782X2002000400001
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 78, no. 4
pp. 347 – 351

Abstract

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PURPOSE: To evaluate left ventricular mass (LVM) index in hypertensive and normotensive obese individuals. METHODS: Using M mode echocardiography, 544 essential hypertensive and 106 normotensive patients were evaluated, and LVM was indexed for body surface area (LVM/BSA) and for height² (LVM/h²). The 2 indexes were then compared in both populations, in subgroups stratified according to body mass index (BMI): or = 30kg/m². RESULTS: The BSA index does not allow identification of significant differences between BMI subgroups. Indexing by height² provides significantly increased values for high BMI subgroups in normotensive and hypertensive populations. CONCLUSION: Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) has been underestimated in the obese with the use of LVM/BSA because this index considers obesity as a physiological variable. Indexing by height² allows differences between BMI subgroups to become apparent and seems to be more appropriate for detecting LVH in obese populations.

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