Change in cardiovascular risk profile by echocardiography in medium-risk elderly hypertensives

It has been clearly demonstrated that ageing and arterial hypertension are both associated with an increased prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), which is a powerful risk factor for cardiovascular (CV) events. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of echocardiographic LVH in profiling the absolute CV risk stratification according to the 1999 World Health Organization-International Society of Hypertension (WHO/ISH) guidelines in elderly hypertensive patients. A total of 223 never-treated elderly patients (≥65 years) with essential hypertension (98 men, 125 women, mean age 72 ± 5 years) referred to our outpatient hospital clinic were included in the study. They underwent the following procedures: (1) medical history, physical examination, and clinic blood pressure; (2) routine blood chemistry and urine analysis and (3) electrocardiogram. The risk was initially stratified according to the routine procedures suggested by WHO/ISH guidelines and subsequently reassessed by adding the results of echocardiography (LVH as left ventricular mass index >51 g/m2.7 in men and >47 g/m2.7 in women). According to routine classification, 56% (n=125) were medium-risk patients, 29% (64) high-risk and 15% (34) very-high-risk patients. The overall prevalence of LVH was 56% (48% in medium-risk and 62% in high-risk or very-high-risk patients, P<0.01). A marked change in risk stratification was observed when echocardiographic LVH was taken into consideration: medium-risk patients decreased to 29% and high-risk patients rose to 56% (P<0.01). In conclusion, ultrasound assessment of cardiac target organ damage is extremely useful in obtaining a more valid assessment of global cardiovascular risk in elderly hypertensives, because stratification based on diagnostic routine procedures can underestimate the overall risk in a large fraction (48%) of medium-risk subjects.