Cardiac and carotid structure in arterial hypertension and in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

The aim of this study was to measure intima-media thickness (IMT) of the common carotid artery (CCA) in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). We studied 73 subjects: 20 normotensive healthy subjects as control group (I); 20 patients with essential hypertension without LVH (II); 20 hypertensives with LVH (III), and 13 normotensive patients with HCM (IV). Each subject underwent a complete echocardiographic and vascular ultrasonographic study in order to assess left ventricular parameters and the IMT at the level of the CCA. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) was significantly higher in groups III and IV than in groups I and II (156 ± 18 and 157 ± 31 vs. 94 ± 14 and 98 ± 10 g/m2, respectively, p < 0.01), while IMT was significantly greater in group III but not in the others [0.88 ± 0.04 vs. 0.61 ± 0.03 (I), 0.64 ± 0.03 (II) and 0.61 ± 0.04 (IV) mm, p < 0.01]. The correlation between LVMI and IMT was statistically significant within all the hypertensive patients (r = 0.48, p < 0.01) but not in the HCM group (r = 0.17, p = NS). The hypertensive patients with LVH showed structural alterations (related to hemodynamic and humoral factors) both at cardiac and vascular level while in patients with HCM the cardiac alterations (due to a genetic disorder) were not associated with changes at the level of the large arteries