CIRCLE THE DATE:
May 13-16 for the 13th Annual Scientific Meeting
American Society of Hypertension, New York City
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For More Information:
Bob Schwadron
212-468-3616
ENLARGED HEARTS AND MILD HYPERTENSION
A POTENTIALLY DEADLY COMBINATION
NEW YORK, NY -- The combination of an enlarged heart and delays in the heart's electrical activity can be life threatening for people with borderline or mild high blood pressure, but the problem can be corrected with high blood pressure medications, according to a landmark study published in the American Journal of Hypertension.
"It is the first time that researchers have confirmed that there is a potentially fatal link between a change in the size of the heart's main pumping vessel, a condition that is known as left ventricular hypertrophy, and significant delays in electrical impulses that make the heart beat efficiently, which is called increased QT dispersion, even in patients whose blood pressure elevation seems minor," says Michael A. Weber, MD, an editor of the American Journal of Hypertension.
A team of researchers at Japan's Teikyo University School of Medicine, studied 85 men with mild or borderline hypertension during a three year period. The men did not receive any high blood pressure medication. Instead, they were given health education on lifestyle modification, which many experts consider a standard of care for people with borderline hypertension. At the end of three years, however, 32 of the 85 men were found to have enlarged hearts.
Of importance, the investigators also discovered that this enlargement, or hypertrophy, was associated with significant delays in the electrical activity of these patients' hearts, as measured by electrocardiogram.
The patients were compared with a control group of age-matched healthy Japanese male volunteers selected from those who underwent annual physical checkups with echocardiography.
When the 32 hypertensive men whose hearts became enlarged were treated for their high blood pressure, there was a tendency for their hearts to return to a more normal size. In addition, the electrical delay, or QT dispersion, tended to be normalized.
According to Hirofumi Tomiyama, MD, principal investigator of the study, "to our knowledge, this is the first report to evaluate the association between the geometric pattern of left ventricular hypertrophy and QT dispersion and to examine these changes longitudinally in subjects with borderline and mild hypertension."
The researchers noted that their findings "obviously suggest that changes in QT dispersion reflect the progression and regression of left ventricular hypertrophy. This may share the same significance with left ventricular hypertrophy in the prognosis of hypertensive patients."
Dr. Weber emphasizes that "this research indicates that in patients with even milder forms of hypertension, an increase in heart size is not an innocent finding. Heart enlargement almost invariably leads to heart attacks, sudden cardiac death or heart failure.
"Fortunately, effective treatment of high blood pressure that reverses the thickening of the heart's wall also appears to restore electrical activity to normal in these patients," Dr. Weber concludes.
The study, "Left Ventricular Geometric Patterns and QT Dispersion in Borderline and Mild Hypertension: Their Evolution and Regression," was published in the March issue of the American Journal of Hypertension. Teikyo University School of Medicine is located in Ichihara, Chiba, Japan.
Nearly 50 million Americans have hypertension, called the silent killer because it prematurely ages the body's arteries and can lead to strokes, heart attacks and kidney disease, often without warning.
The American Society of Hypertension is the largest US organization devoted exclusively to hypertension and related cardiovascular diseases. The organization is committed to alerting physicians, allied health professionals and the public about new medical options, facts, research findings and treatment choices designed to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
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