Abstract

BODY MASS INDEX AND BLOOD PRESSURE INFLUENCES ON LEFT VENTRICULAR DIASTOLIC FUNCTION, MASS AND GEOMETRY

*Rowa Talal Ghanem, Baybeen Khorsheed Al-Selevany, PhD, Mothafar Abdulrahman Habeeb, FRCP-Glasg

ABSTRACT

Background: obesity and hypertension are considered from the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and stroke. Materials and method: A total of 206 subjects were enrolled in the study, 106 of them were hypertensive(67 female and 39 male) Some of these patients attended the Outpatient Clinics and then referred to the echocardiographic unit at Rizgary teaching hospital, others were inpatients admitted to the medical ward, and 100 subjects were normotensive(48 male and 52 female), were referred to echcardiographic unit for complaints other than elevated blood pressure(blood pressure reading <140/90). All participants subjected to echocardiographic examination by an experienced echocardiographers. Results: In our study we found synergistic interaction of blood pressure and body mass index on diastolic function with 20(28.17%) of those who are hypertensive and obese have normal diastolic function and 51(71.83%) of obese hypertensives have diastolic dysfunction, as well as there were synergistic interaction of both of these cardiovascular risk factors on cardiac geometry and left ventricular mass index[27(38.03%) of obese hypertensive have normal left ventricular mass index,44(61.97%) of obese hypertensive have left ventricular hypertrophy]. The prevalence of diastolic dysfunction among hypertensives was 65.1%, while in normotensives was 8%. The prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy among hypertensives was 57.5% while just 12% of normotensives were with left ventricular hypertrophy. Conclusion: The effects of blood pressure on cardiac function and structure generally increased with the increasing body mass index levels. The joint influence of blood pressure and body mass index on cardiac function and structure were clearly evident in the study.

Keywords: diastolic function, left ventricular mass index, cardiac geometry, body mass index, blood pressure.