Assessment of left ventricular systolic and diastolic function by echocardiography in patients of advanced age with essential hypertension

Objective To explore the clinical value of echocardiography in assessment of left ventricular function in patients of advanced age with essential hypertension.Methods 153 patients with essential hypertension were enrolled and 65 normal subjects served as the control group.The conventional Echo-Doppler parameters were assessed,including interventricular septum thickness(IVS),left ventricular posterior wall thickness(LVPW),the end diastolic diameter of left ventricle(LVEDD),E/A ratio,ejection fraction of left ventricle(LVEF) and Tei index.Results E/A was1 in both the control group and hypertension groups.The LVEF was significantly reduced in centrifugal hypertrophy group than that of the others(P0.05).Tei index of all hypertension groups was increased compared with that of the control group(P0.05).Tei index was not correlated with E/A(P0.05) and was negatively correlated with LVEF(r=-0.594,P0.001).Conclusions Tei index is more valuable for estimating left ventricular systolic and diastolic functions than E/A and LVEF do.