Racial differences in left ventricular mass among hypertensive Egyptians: results from the Egyptian national hypertension project [NHP]

In this study, LV measurements were obtained from the records of 103 black [B] and 1108 non-black [NB] hypertensive [SBP >/140 and/or DBP >/90 mmHg] Egyptians who received no treatment and were age and gender matched. In B cases, the mean age was 56 years, 39% of them were males. In NB cases, age was 54 years, 43.4% were males. Left ventricular mass [LVM] was corrected for body surface area [BSA] and LVM index [LVMI]. The results of echocardiographic survey study of hypertensive Egyptians revealed that black hypertensive Egyptians have similar or even less LVMI as compared with NB in spite of the higher levels of SBP and urinary NA excretion. Data did not support the notion that black race is at especially higher risk of developing LVH