Value of Echocardiographic Measurement of Left Ventricular Mass in Predicting Cardiovascular Morbid Events in Hypertensive Men

To assess whether echocardiographic and electrocardiographic detection of left ventricular hypertrophy could predict cardiovascular morbid events in patients with uncomplicated essential hypertension, we followed 140 men for a mean of 4.8 years. Initial echocardiographic measurements of left ventricular mass were normal ( < 125 g/m 2 body surface area) in 111 patients and revealed hypertrophy in 29 patients. Morbid events occurred in more patients with hypertrophy on echocardiography (7 of 2 9, 4. 6 / 1 0 0 patient-years) than with normal ventricular mass (7 of 111,1.4 /100 patient-years; p < 0.01). Electrocardiography showed hypertrophy in too few patients to be of predictive value. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that left ventricular mass index had the highest independen