Comparison of Left Heart Remodeling between Patients with Lone Atrial Fibrillation and Those with both Atrial Fibrillation and Essential Hypertension

Objective: To compare the remodeling of left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and other parameters. between patients with essential hypertension and atrial fibrillation and those with lone atrial fibrillation. Methods: Patients without diseases influencing heart structures were divided into three groups: essential hypertension (EH) group, essential hypertension with atrial fibrillation (EHAF) group and lone atrial fibrillation (LAF) group. The cross-sectional, anterior-posterior and longitudinal diameters and the area of the left atrium, the thickness of inter-ventricular septum (IVST), the thickness of left ventricular posterior wall (PWT) and the left ventricular end-diastolic diameter were measured with echocardiography. IVST/PWT ratio and LVMI were calculated. Results: 446, 78 and 38 patients were included in the EH group, EHAF group and LAF group respectively. IVST and PWT in EHAF group were thicker than those in EH and LAF groups (p0.05 and 0.01). IVST and PWT in EH group were also thicker than those in LAF group(p 0.01 and 0.05). All diameters and area of left atrum in EHAF group were markedly larger than those in LAF and LH groups(p 0.01). LVMI in EHAF group was significantly bigger than that in the other two groups(p 0.01 and 0.05). Conclusion:Hypertensive patients with atrial fibrillation have more severe left ventricular hypertrophy than those without atrial fibrillation. Lone atrial fibrillation has a weaker relation to left atrium enlargement and left ventricular hypertrophic remodeling than atrial fibrillation does in hypertensive patients.