Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and concentric LV remodeling (CR) are precursors to development of clinical heart failure (HF), and are associated with obesity, hypertension (HTN) and diabetes mellitus (DM), which are highly prevalent in Mexican Americans. Our study aimed to determine the prevalence of subclinical LV structural abnormalities (LVH or CR) and LV diastolic dysfunction (LVDD) in a sample of asymptomatic Mexican Americans in South Texas and determinants of these LV structural abnormalities.
Methods:
Demographic, cardiometabolic biomarkers, and body composition data were obtained in 1208 participants (66.3% females, mean age 53.0±0.4 years) without any CVD history from the community-based Cameron County Hispanic Cohort study. Echocardiography was used to determine LVH/CR (linear method) and LVDD was assessed using national guidelines. Those with LV systolic dysfunction (n=26) were excluded. Abdominal adiposity was determined by abdominal visceral fat mass (VAT) from dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Weighted ordinal logistic regression analyses were conducted adjusting for demographic and clinical covariates.
Results:
Weighted prevalence rates of LVH (16.6% ± 1.7%), CR (40.7% ± 2.0%) and LVDD (24.2% ± 1.8%) were high in this cohort. In men, age (p<0.01), obesity (p=0.04) and HTN (p<0.001) were positively related to LV abnormalities. In women, age (p<0.001), obesity (p<0.01), education (p=0.02), HTN (p<0.01) and DM (p<0.01) were related to LV abnormalities. VAT was associated with LV abnormalities in women (p=0.02), but not in men (p=0.08).
Conclusion:
More than half of this asymptomatic Hispanic cohort had evidence of LV structural abnormalities and almost a quarter had subclinical diastolic dysfunction. We noted a gender interaction, with diabetes and abdominal obesity seen to be significantly related to cardiac abnormalities only in women. Identifying subclinical changes in cardiac function in these high-risk patients may mitigate progression to clinical HF by early intervention.
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