ABSTRACT
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To determine the cardiac and renal arteriolar pathological changes in autopsied elderly hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Autopsy samples from 25 essential hypertension (EH) patients with LVH aged over 60 years and age-matched 8 controls were analyzed. LVH was further divided into three degrees from I to III according to left ventricular free wall thickness in EH patients. Quantitative measurements of arteriolar morphometric parameters in heart and kidney were performed under light microscope with computer image analysis post HE and Masson staining. The lesion index and plasma albumen infiltration of arteriole were evaluated by the semiquantitative method.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>The inner diameter (ID) and luminal cross-sectional area (LCSA) were significantly decreased while wall thickness (WT), wall cross-sectional area (WCSA), ratio of WCSA to LCSA (WCSA/LCSA) and ratio of WT to ID (WT/ID) were significantly increased in EH patients in proportion to LVH degree. Both cardiac and renal arterioles WCSA/LCSA and WT/ID were significantly decreased with increasing outer diameters (OD). Under the same OD rang, the pathological changes were more significant in the renal arterioles compared to those in the cardiac arterioles (P < 0.05). The arteriolar lesion index and the plasma albumen infiltration index of cardiac and renal arterioles in EH group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.01) and the arteriolar lesion index and the plasma albumen infiltration of arteriole in the renal tissue were significantly higher than those in the cardiac tissue (P < 0.01).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>Concentric remodeling occurs in the cardiac and renal arterioles of EH patients in proportion to LVH degree and renal arterioles lesions were significantly severer than that of cardiac arterioles in EH patients with LVH.</p>