Subclinical left ventricular dysfunction in systemic hypertension and the role of 24-hour blood pressure

The relation between blood pressure (BP) and left ventricular (LV) systolic function in systemic hypertension is controversial. We assessed the relation of LV midwall fractional shortening (FS) to 24-hour BP in 1,702 never-treated hypertensive subjects (age 48 ± 12 years), who underwent 24-hour BP monitoring and echocardiography. Stress-corrected endocardial and midwall FS (the latter calculated taking into account the epicardial migration of midwall during systole) were predicted in hypertensives on the basis of the values observed in 130 healthy normotensives (age 43 ± 13 years, office BP 126/78 mm Hg). Subjects below the fifth percentile of observed-to-predicted FS had depressed LV function. The use of midwall FS resulted in an increase from 3.5% to 17.5% in the proportion of patients with depressed chamber function. Compared with the group with normal function, subjects with low midwall LV function had similar office systolic BP (155 ± 21 vs 154 ± 17 mm Hg), but increased 24-hour systolic BP (140 ± 17 vs 133 ± 12 mm Hg, p <0.001). Midwall FS had a closer negative relation to 24-hour systolic BP than to office systolic BP (r = −0.27 vs −0.08, p <0.001), whereas this difference was not apparent for diastolic BP (r = −0.23 vs −0.20). Compared with endocardial FS, midwall FS had a stronger inverse association to LV mass (r = −0.45 vs −0.16, p <0.001). Thus, an increased 24-hour BP load may chronically lead to depressed myocardial function in systemic hypertension in the absence of clinically overt heart disease.