[Hemodynamic types of hypertensive disease according to echocardiographic data].

Central hemodynamics was studied by means of echocardiography in 7 patients suffering from neurocirculatory dystonia with a high cardiac index but normal arterial pressure, and in 41 patients with essential hypertension prior to, and after treatment. Two groups of patients suffering from essential hypertension were distinguished: with a hyperkinetic type of circulation and with a normal cardiac index. In the first group there was a statistically significant increase in the stroke index and the index of diastolic left ventricular diameter with a normal ejection fraction. The increase in the cardiac index in the hyperkinetic type of essential hypertension is caused by an increase in the stroke output according to the Frank--Starling law. The authors believe that the increase in peripheral resistance is the principal pathogenetic mechanism of hypertension with any level of the minute volume.