Atherosclerosis and left ventricular hypertrophy: persisting problems in treated hypertensive patients

Objectives First, to determine whether hypertensive patients managed in general practice have more advanced atherosclerosis and left ventricular hypertrophy than matched normotensive patients from the same practices. Second. to investigate the associations of several potentially modifiable factors with these vascular and cardiac outcomes. Design and methods We performed a case-control study of 500 hypertensive cases (systolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 160 mmHg or diastolic blood pressure greater than or equal to 95 mmHg or receiving treatment) and 506 age- (mean 61 years) and sex- (54% female) matched normotensive controls recruited from general practices. Carotid artery far wall thickness (CWT), assessed by B-mode ultrasound, and left ventricular mass (LVM), assessed by M-mode echocardiography, were the main study outcome measures. Results Mean systolic/diastolic blood pressure levels in the 399 treated cases (145/87 mmHg) were lower than those in untreated cases (158/94 mmHg) but higher than those in controls (133/82 mmHg, all P< 0.0001), Mean body mass index (BMI) and total triglyceride levels were higher and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was lower in cases than in controls (all P< 0.0004), Mean CWT was 10% greater in cases than in controls and LVM was 14% greater (both P< 0.001), but both were similar in treated and untreated cases (P> 0.05), In multivariate analyses, blood pressure and BMI were both directly and independently related to CWT and LVM (both P< 0.0001), Conclusions In this study, hypertensive patients managed in general practice - whether treated with antihypertensive drugs or not - had more advanced atherosclerosis and left ventricular hypertrophy than did matched normotensive patients. Efforts to lower blood pressure further and to reduce BMI could potentially reduce these differences, and this might lead to a reduction in the risk of major cardiovascular events. J Hypertens 16:1389-1395 (C) 1998 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.