Regression of left ventricular hypertrophy: Lessons from clinical trials

Abstract

For citation purposes: Pokharel P, Bella JN. Regression of left ventricular hypertrophy: lessons from clinical trials. OA Evidence-Based Medicine 2013 Nov 30;1(2):13. Abstract Introduction Hypertension is an epidemic that affects more than 1 billion people worldwide annually. Left ventricu-lar hypertrophy is the phenotypic expression of hypertensive heart disease, which depends on complex interactions among genetic makeup, environmental factors and lifestyle. Left ventricular hypertrophy has been shown to be independently as-sociated with adverse cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Targeting left ventricular hypertrophy with dif-ferent pharmacological agents and lifestyle modifications has been asso-ciated with favourable results and re-sults in improved outcome. Evidence shows that the drug targets rennin– angiotensin–aldosterone are more effective system in reducing left ven-tricular mass. Moving forward, the new frontier in this field will be to understand the genetic influences on left ventricular hypertrophy regres-sion and progression and ways to intervene early and treat this public health burden. Conclusion Targeting left ventricular hypertro-phy regression with various anti-hypertensive agents results in im-proved clinical outcomes. Therefore regression of LVH can be considered surrogate endpoint in the treatment of hypertensive heart disease