One hundred seventy-six unmedicated mildly hypertensive subjects (113
men, 63 women) underwent M-mode echocardiography to determine left ven
tricular mass (LVM) and relative wall thickness (RWT), 24-h ambulatory
blood pressure monitoring, and completed standardized questionnaires
measuring marital and job stress. Subjects were aged 46 +/- 9 years ol
d; 45.4% had daytime diastolic blood pressure < 90 mm Hg; 96.1% of LVM
results were in the normal range. We found that neither marital distr
ess nor job strain was a determinant of LVM. However, a segmental regr
ession approach revealed inflection points of 131 mm Hg systolic dayti
me blood pressure and 83 and 87 mm Hg nighttime diastolic blood pressu
re in the relation between LVM and RWT, respectively, and ambulatory B
P. In addition, we found that the variability of LVM was best explaine
d by indexing LVM by height, rather than body surface area. Am J Hyper
tens 1998;11:1248-1251 (C) 1998 American Journal of Hypertension, Ltd.