[Arterial hypertension in black Africans. Clinical and echographic study in 50 patients].

OBJECTIVES

Clinical and electrocardiographic and echocardiographic data were collected in 50 black Africans with hypertension to study modifications in left ventricular geometry.

METHODS

Thirty men and 20 women with hypertension (mean age 40.9 +/- 10.2 years) who had recently immigrated from Africa were included in the study. Parameters recorded were: systolic and diastolic pressures, body mass index (BMI = weight/height2); ECG; echocardiography (36 patients): end diastolic septal and posterior wall thickness, left ventricle diameter, left ventricle mass (LVM) and relative wall thickness.

RESULTS

Systolic and diastolic pressures and BMI were 169 +/- 24 mmHg, 105 +/- 14 mmHg and 26.7 +/- 3.9 kg/m2). LVM was 129 +/- 41 g/m2 (Normal < 134 g/m2) in men and 113 +/- 35 g/m2 (Normal = 110 g/m2) in women. Concentric remodeling was found in 8 patients (LVM = normal, relative wall thickness > or = 0.45), concentric left ventricle hypertrophy in 10 (LVM > normal, relative wall thickness > or = 0.45), excentric left ventricular hypertrophy in 6 (LVM > normal, relative wall thickness < 0.45), asymmetric septal hypertrophy in 4 and normal echocardiogram in 8. There was a negative correlation between age and end diastolic left ventricle diameter (r = -0.34, p < 0.05) and age and end systolic ventricle diameter (r = -0.74, p < 0.05). There was a positive correlation between body surface and septal thickness (r = 0.34, p < 0.05), posterior wall thickness (r = 0.56, relative wall p < 0.001), and relative wall thickness (r = 0.45, p = 0.05).

CONCLUSION

This population of young subjects with hypertension showed a high prevalence of modifications in left ventricular geometry with predominant concentric modeling with (8/36) and without (10/36) left ventricle hypertrophy.