Study on the correlation between left ventricular reconstruction and carotid arterial atherosclerosis in aged patients with essential hypertension

Objective To investigate the correlation between left ventricular (LV) reconstruction and carotid arterial atherosclerosis in aged patients with essential hypertension.Methods One hundred and twenty aged patients with essential hypertension were divided into two groups according to myocardial mass index of the LV as left ventricular hypertrophy group(LVH) and non left ventricular hypertrophy group(NLVH),and 40 healthy aged persons were selected as normal control. A Color Doppler Ultrasound system was used to investigate the internal diameter(D), the intimal medial thickness(IMT) and the related parameters of left ventricle.Results The positive rate of atherosclerotic patches found in the patients with essential hypertension was remarkably higher than that in the normal controls.Furthermore,hemodynamic investigation showed that blood flow resistance index(RI) values of common carotid artery(CCA),internal carotid artery(ICA) and external carotid artery(ECA) of both LVH and NLVH groups were markedly higher than those of normal control,while the values of these parameters of the LVH group were higher than those of the NLVH group.Conclusions The values of IMT/D and IMT are sensitive indicators which can be used to evaluate the degree of atherosclerosis of carotid artery at the early phase. The atherosclerosis of carotid artery was significantly correlated with the structural reconstruction of LV in the aged patients with essential hypertension.