No abstract

Echocardiographically determined left ventricular mass and geometry stratify risk in patients with essential hypertension independently of and more strongly than blood pressure or other potentially reversible risk factors and may help to stratify the need for intensive treatment.

During approximately 1 year of therapy, the use of evolocumab plus standard therapy, as compared with standard therapy alone, significantly reduced LDL cholesterol levels and reduced the incidence of cardiovascular events in a prespecified but exploratory analysis. (Funded by Amgen; OSLER-1 and OSLER-2 ClinicalTrials.gov numbers, NCT01439880 and NCT01854918.).

These results show the following: 1) Variability of left ventricular mass in relation to height increases during human growth; 2) allometric signals of left ventricular mass versus height are lower in adults and children than those obtained across the entire age spectrum; 3) height-based indexes of left ventricular mass at least maintain and may enhance prediction of cardiac risk by hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy; and 4) the allometric signal derived across the entire spectrum of age appears to be more useful for prediction of cardiovascular risk than that computed in adults.