ABSTRACT
A prospective study was conducted to ascertain the distribution of the left ventricular mass in normal adult Indian population and to establish the upper limit of the same. Four hundred and eighty normal subjects (men = 310; women = 170), in the age group of 18 to 60 years were screened echocardiographically, to estimate the left ventricular mass. The left ventricular mass in men was found to be 124 +/- 32 gm whereas in women it was 93 +/- 37 gm. The upper limit of the left ventricular mass (mean +/- 2 SD) was found to be 189 gm and 167 gm, for men and women respectively. The left ventricular mass in both men and women correlated with the body weight (r = 0.51, p less than 0.001; r = 0.22, p less than 0.001), height (r = 0.27, p less than 0.001; r = 0.22, p less than 0.01), and the body surface area (r = 0.49, p less than 0.001; r = 0.27, p less than 0.001), whereas it was found to be independent of age (r = 0.01, p = NS; r = 0.10, p = NS). In men alone the diastolic blood pressure influenced the left ventricular mass (r = 0.27, p less than 0.001), otherwise the left ventricular mass was independent of systemic blood pressure variations within the normal range. The left ventricular mass in the present study differs significantly from the Western population.