DETERMINANTS OF LEFT-VENTRICULAR MASS IN EARLY HYPERTENSION

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.