Prevalence and determinants of left ventricular hypertrophy among elderly hypertensive patients attending tertiary health care center in West Bengal, India

: Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most prevalent, modifiable and treatable causes of cardiovascular diseases in the elderly. Damage to cardiovascular system due to chronic hypertension causes hypertensive heart disease including left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH). It is a physiological adaptation to chronic blood pressure (BP) indicating grave prognosis and should be diagnosed early. Present study therefore aimed to assess LVH and other Cardio-vascular (CV) changes and to ascertain correlation between the electrocardiographic (ECG) and radiographic / chest x-ray (CXR) evidences and find out their determinants among elderly hypertensive patients. 100 elderly hypertensive subjects were included in study. Cardio-vascular changes and LVH was assessed by using chest x-ray and ECG. Other bio-chemical investigations were done also.: 29% and 32% subjects had LVH detected by Chest x-ray and ECG respectively. Female, increasing age, family history and duration of HTN, smoking, alcohol consumption were found independent determinants of LVH. Subjects with LVH had higher mean blood pressures, mean pulse pressure and higher blood urea nitrogen than those without LVH. Micro-albuminuria was significantly more frequent in patients with LVH as detected by CXR. Fasting Blood sugar and dyslipidaemia was associated with greater odds of developing LVH. In low resource settings, where standard diagnostic tests are unavailable- chest x-ray and ECG are the useful tools for detection of cardio vascular changes / LVH among chronic hypertensive.