Cardiac hypertrophy

Abstract

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy develops in response to stresses, and can be concentric, eccentric, or both. An excess pressure load placed on the heart, for example, resulting from uncorrected hypertension or valvular disease, results in concentric hypertrophy. This hypertrophy is initially believed to be adaptive, normalizing systolic wall stress, though it is not clear that hypertrophy is necessary to maintain systolic function in the face of moderately elevated pressure loads. Eccentric hypertrophy results most often from volume loads such as those in valvular insufficiency. Finally, the hypertrophy that occurs in the remote noninfarcted myocardium, as part of the remodeling process following a myocardial infarction, may be both concentric and eccentric. © 2006 Humana Press Inc.