Abstract
: Arterial hypertension, a widespread disease, whose prevalence increases with age, represents a major risk factor for cardiovascular events, causing damage in several organs, including the heart. In this context, echocardiography has a clear and pivotal role, being able to assess cardiac morphology and detect haemodynamic changes induced by this disease. 2018 European Society of Cardiology/European Society of Hypertension guidelines on AH identified main echo parameters such as left ventricular mass, relative wall thickness and left atrial volume, for detecting cardiac organ damage. The present review highlights the advantage of additional echocardiographic parameters such as diastolic measurement and both thoracic and abdominal aortic dimensions. An overlook on aortic valve should also be suggested to detect aortic regurgitation and stenosis, both frequent complications in hypertensive patients. In this kind of comprehensive assessment, the combination of standard and advanced echocardiography (speckle tracking echocardiography and, with a lesser extent, three-dimensional echocardiography) could be considered to improve the diagnostic accuracy, stratify prognosis and address management in arterial hypertension.
Highlights
The aim of the present review is to present a comprehensive echocardiographic assessment for the identification of early cardiac organ damage in patients affected by arterial hypertension
* Table 1: With the purpose of defining LVH, cut-off would be more adequate than reference range According to your request, in Table 1 we described the thresholds of normalcy instead of the reference ranges of the parameters used for left ventricular (LV) geometrical assessment
The present review aims to underline the possible advantage of using additional parameters, including aortic dimension and cardiac function, obtainable from standard and advanced echocardiography that could provide a wider view of CV involvement and identify subclinical organ damage in patients affected by Arterial hypertension (AH)
Summary
2018 ESC/ESH guidelines on arterial hypertension identified several echocardiographic parameters, like left ventricular mass, relative wall thickness and left atrial volume, for identification of organ damage. The present review highlights the advantage of additional parameters for detecting subclinical organ damage and selecting patients that could be more prone of overt heart failure development. Diastolic measurement, both thoracic and abdominal aortic dimensions, and aortic valve diseases should be considered for providing an exhaustive view of cardiovascular involvement in arterial hypertension. The combination of standard and advanced echocardiography should be contemplated to address management and stratify prognosis in hypertensive patients
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