Electrocardiography and conventional radiology accuracy compared to echocardiography in evaluating left ventricular remodelling patterns in hypertensive patients.
OBJECTIVE
The value of conventional radiology, electrocardiography and echocardiography in estimating the prevalence of left ventricular (LV) remodeling patterns in patients with newly discovered hypertension was less studied. The aim of the present study was to assess the accuracy of conventional radiology and electrocardiography compared to echocardiography in the diagnosis of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and different remodeling types in male patients with recent primary arterial hypertension (PAH).


METHODS
This cross-sectional study, enrolled 420 male patients with recent stage 2 PAH, diagnosed less than a year before, and 420 normotensive male subjects, using conventional radiological methods, ECG and also echocardiography. The ultrasound examination documented four types of LV remodeling, based on the measurement of LV parameters: concentric hypertrophy (CH), eccentric hypertrophy (EH), concentric remodeling (CR) and the normal variant (NV).


RESULTS
In the recent PAH group, echocardiography diagnosed LV patterns in different proportions (34.285% CR; 24.285% NV; 21.43% EH; 20% CH), whereas the standard radiological examination and ECG documented LVH positive criteria in a much lower proportion of cases, for these patterns.


CONCLUSIONS
The ECG and radiological examinations detected LVH in patients with EH, and CH, but both examinations were inconclusive in those with CR and NV. This study comparatively reflects the effectiveness of echocardiography, electrocardiography and conventional radiology, in the diagnosis of LV patterns in newly discovered hypertension and also illustrates the arguments for and against the usage of these three imagery techniques.
Radulescu
D
D
Department of Cardiology, Fifth Medical Clinic, Municipal Hospital, Cluj-Napoca, Romania. dr.radulescu_dan@yahoo.com
Pripon
S
S
Parv
A
A
Duncea
C
C
Gulei
I
I
D004452:Echocardiography / Q000592:standards*; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011859:Radiography; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020257:Ventricular Remodeling