Relation of obesity and gender to left ventricular hypertrophy in normotensive and hypertensive adults

Abstract

Although it is recognized that both hypertension and obesity are associated with increased left ventricular mass, the relative impacts of obesity, arterial hypertension, and gender on the prevalence of ventricular hypertrophy remain uncertain. Accordingly, echocardiographic left ventricular mass normalized for height to the power of the allometric or growth relation between ventricular mass and height was compared in 164 normotensive subjects (85 men [24 obese] and 79 women [28 obese], aged 45±12 years) and 475 hypertensive patients (325 men [126 obese] and 150 women [85 obese], aged 54±10 years) from an adult employed population. Gender-specific upper normal limits were used to identify ventricular hypertrophy. Left ventricular mass/height was higher in obese than normal-weight normotensive subjects (P