Echocardiographic Correlation Between Left Atrial Indices and Left Ventricular Function (Diastolic, Systolic Dysfunction and Normo Function) in Hypertensives

Abstract

Purpose: Hypertension is known to cause changes in the LV that impact negatively on the LA both structurally and functionally posing clinically significant risk to patients. LA size assessment until recently was limited to determination of LA linear diameter and much has not been elucidated with respect to left atrial volume (indices) and cardiac indices as surrogates for LA and cardiac function. It is therefore important to see how LA indices (size, linear diameter and volume) cardiac indices relate to LV diastolic function among hypertensive subjects. To compare left atria indices with left ventricular function/dysfunction among hypertensive
 Methodology: It is an echocardiographic based descriptive cross-sectional study. A total of 200 hypertensive patients were recruited from the cardiology clinics using systematic sampling method.
 Results: Majority of the cases had isolated diastolic dysfunction n=149 (74.5%), thirty-six (18%) had normal diastolic and systolic functions while 7.5% had combined systolic and diastolic dysfunction (n=15). Left atrial maximum volume correlated significantly with E/E Prime (P= 0.003) and E/A Ratio (P= 0.003). While Left atrial pre-A wave volume (P=0.025), Left atrial diameter did not correlate with IVRT, E/E’, E/A ratio. Among the hypertensive patient’s E/E’ significantly correlated positively with all phasic LA volumes compared to E/A ratio. LV mass independently predicted all LA phasic volumes
 Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: The study will create opportunity for clinician and policy makers to adopt measures to prevent progression into overt heart disease or failure