title: Left atrial diameter, flow-mediated dilation of brachial artery and target organ damage in Chinese patients with hypertension.
abstract: To investigate the relationship between left atrial (LA) size, endothelial dysfunction and different markers of target organ damage (TOD), we measured left atrial diameter (LAD) and endothelial function in hypertensive patients with or without TOD. In this study, 197 patients with hypertension were divided into four groups as follows: no TOD (Group I, n=40), one TOD (Group II, n=76), two TOD (Group III, n=46) and ≥3 TOD (Group IV, n=35). Endothelial function was assessed by endothelium-dependent vasodilatation (flow-mediated dilation, FMD) of the brachial artery. We also assessed serum creatinine, the urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (UACR), the intima-media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid, carotid to femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) and left ventricular mass index (LVMI). Our results were as follows: LA size was increased in 50.8% of patients and was associated with the number of TOD. LAD was larger in the patient groups with ≥3 TOD as compared with patients with two TOD, one TOD and no TOD. FMD was lower in patients with LAD enlargement. LAD exhibited significant relationships with serum creatinine, UACR, cf-PWV, IMT and LVMI. In stepwise multivariate regression analysis, LVMI (β=0.37, P<0.001), BMI (β=0.33, P<0.001), duration of hypertension (β=0.20, P=0.001) and FMD (β=-0.17, P=0.006) were the independent predictors of LAD. FMD significantly correlated with LAD (β=-0.26, P=0.001), male sex (β=-0.23, P=0.004) and pulse pressure (PP) (β=-0.16, P<0.05). In conclusions, enlargement of LAD may be an important predictor of endothelial dysfunction and may be considered to be an indicator for evaluating TOD in hypertensive patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China. jasonxv@yahoo.com.cn
authors.forename: J-Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: S-Y
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Y-Q
authors.initials: YQ
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Y-S
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Y-R
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.forename: Z-F
authors.initials: ZF
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.forename: C-Z
authors.initials: CZ
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: C-Q
authors.initials: CQ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000419:Albuminuria / Q000503:physiopathology; D044466:Asian People; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002339:Carotid Arteries / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D059168:Carotid Intima-Media Thickness; D003404:Creatinine / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006325:Heart Atria / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D015995:Prevalence; D059289:Vascular Stiffness / Q000502:physiology; D014664:Vasodilation / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D003404:Creatinine