Left ventricular diastolic function in patients on maintenance haemodialysis

The aim of this study was to elucidate the differences in left ventricular (LV) diastolic function between patients on maintenance haemodialysis (HD) with LV hypertrophy (LVH) and those with LVH from other causes. Twenty HD p atients (HD group), 11 patients with hypertensive heart disease (HHD group) , 11 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM group) and 11 age-matched health y individuals (N group) were examined using echocardiography. Compared with the HCM group, the HD and HHD groups had smaller total LV wall thickness a nd left atrial dimension, a higher ratio of LV end-diastolic dimension to L V posterior wall thickness, a shorter isovolumic relaxation time and a high er ratio of peak flow velocity of early to late LV fillings (E/A). There wa s a correlation between LV mass index or E/A and systolic blood pressure. T hese results indicate that HD patients have an LV diastolic dysfunction sim ilar to that observed in HHD patients but which is less severe than that fo und in HCM patients. It seems reasonable to control hypertension in HD pati ents in order to favourably influence LV diastolic function.