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(Hypertension. 2008;52:59.)
© 2008 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial Commentaries

Gender Differences in the Regression of Electrocardiographic Left Ventricular Hypertrophy During Antihypertensive Therapy

Enrico Agabiti-Rosei; Massimo Salvetti

From the Department of Internal Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.

Correspondence to Enrico Agabiti-Rosei, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Brescia, c/o 2a Medicina Spedali Civili di Brescia, Piazzale Spedali Civili 1, 25123 Brescia, Italy. E-mail agabiti@med.unibs.it

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

Despite a common underestimation of cardiovascular (CV) risk in women, CV disease represents the leading cause of death in Western countries in both sexes. It is now widely recognized that the pathophysiology and the clinical manifestations of CV diseases differ significantly between genders. After a period of relative "protection" from CV events in the premenopausal phase, the increase in CV risk associated with aging becomes steeper in females after menopause. The mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are not completely understood; changes in body composition, plasma glucose and lipid levels, and in blood pressure (BP) values may partially explain the observed increase in CV risk. A significant effect exerted by gender in cardiac adaptation to increased workload has been described,¹ with women having a greater increase in the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy and of concentric geometry with progressive aging.

ECG, despite being introduced in clinical practice >100 years ago, still represents one of the most extensively used diagnostic tools in CV medicine and is a powerful index for the assessment of CV risk in hypertensive patients. Several studies have demonstrated the prognostic significance of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) detected by the ECG in hypertensive patients²; in addition, strong evidence exists that favorable changes over time of ECG indices of LVH are associated with a better prognosis in different populations.³

In this issue of Hypertension, Okin et al⁴ report the results of a posthoc analysis performed in 9193 hypertensive patients included in the Losartan Intervention For Endpoint reduction in hypertension . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Related Article:

Gender Differences in Regression of Electrocardiographic Left Ventricular Hypertrophy During Antihypertensive Therapy

Peter M. Okin, Eva Gerdts, Sverre E. Kjeldsen, Stevo Julius, Jonathan M. Edelman, Björn Dahlöf, Richard B. Devereux for the Losartan Intervention for Endpoint Reduction in Hypertension Study Investigators
Hypertension 2008 52: 100-106. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]