Objectives: Arterial hypertension leads to instability and heterogeneity in atrial conduction by these hemodynamic and morphological changes in heart and aorta. These changes can be evaluated by transthoracic echocardiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation of aortic elastic parameters and atrial electromechanical delay (AEMD) parameters in patients with hypertension.
Methods: Eighty-one hypertensive patients and 55 control subjects were included in the study. All subjects underwent transthoracic echocardiography for detecting aortic elastic parameters and AEMD parameters.
Results: There was no difference between HT and control groups regarding age and gender. Aortic strain (8.1 ± 4.3% vs. 10.3 ± 5.1%, P = 0.008) and aortic distensibility (0.35 ± 0.18 cm(2) /dyn vs. 0.45 ± 0.23 cm(2) /dyn, P = 0.003) were decreased in hypertensive patients than in controls. Intra-left AEMD (25.5 ± 7.3 vs. 21.8 ± 9.2 P < 0.009) was significantly higher in hypertensive patients compared to control subjects. No statistically significant difference was found in intra-right AEMD and inter-AEMD between the groups. There was a positive significant moderate correlation between aortic strain and intra-left AEMD (r = 0.501, P < 0.001).
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that intra-left AEMD was increased in hypertensive patients and aortic elastic parameters was correlated with intra-left AEMD. These findings may be related to similar structural and functional changes in heart and aorta in hypertension.
Keywords: aortic strain; doppler tissue imaging; electromechanical delay; hypertension.
© 2013, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.