Correlation of arterial blood pressure and compliance with left ventricular structure and function in the very elderly

Abstract

There are very few data on the relationship between systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), arterial compliance, and left ventricular structure and function, particularly left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH), in the very elderly (>75 years). SBP and arterial stiffness increase with age, and the question is: which of the two is the main stimulus to LVH? This is a cross-sectional study to compare blood pressure and arterial stiffness measures with regard to their correlations with echocardiographic parameters of LV structure and function, controlling for age and cardiovascular risk factors, in a very elderly population. Arterial stiffness was determined by radial pulse waveform using pulse contour analysis. LV dimensions were measured by transthoracic M-mode echocardiography, and diastolic function by tissue Doppler measurements of diastolic mitral annular velocities. There were 179 subjects, all male, with a mean age of 81.8 years. Using age-adjusted partial correlations, SBP, DBP, and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were correlated with parameters of LV structure and function. Correlation coefficients were: SBP versus left ventricular mass index (LVMI), r = 0.246; SBP versus early diastolic mitral annular velocity (MAV), r = −0.179; DBP versus LVMI, r = 0.199; DBP versus MAV, r = −0.199; MAP versus LVMI, r = 0.276; and MAP versus MAV, r = −0.206, all with P < .05. However, neither capacitative nor reflective arterial compliance was significantly correlated with any parameter of LV structure and function. After controlling for age and 10 cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors, the correlation between blood pressure and the measured LV parameters was substantially unchanged, as was the lack of correlation between indices of arterial compliance and the LV indices. Arterial blood pressure is correlated with LV structure and function in the very elderly, but arterial stiffness, as measured by diastolic pulse contour analysis, is not.