Hypertensive heart disease in the patient with a normal electrocardiogram and chest radiograph.
Epidemiological studies in recent years have demonstrated the prognostic implications of cardiac involvement in patients with essential hypertension. Thus, all the major complications of this disorder are increased when left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), as measured by the electrocardiogram (ECG), is present. However, both the ECG and the chest radiograph lack sensitivity in the diagnosis of LVH and cannot provide necessary information regarding cardiac function and perfusion. The development of techniques such as echocardiography has permitted an assessment of cardiac structure and function by noninvasive means early in the development of cardiac adaptation to hypertension. Echocardiography is more sensitive than either the ECG or chest radiograph in the diagnosis of LVH and can also provide information on altered cardiac function even before LVH is present. This earlier detection of cardiac involvement in hypertension is likely to have both prognostic and therapeutic implications and therefore should be considered as part of the baseline assessment of all patients with sustained elevation of arterial pressure.
D006332:Cardiomegaly / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D004452:Echocardiography; D004569:Electroencephalography; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic