RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: In hypertensive patients, the left ventricular hypertrophy(LVH) is very important as an independent risk factor along with developing complications. The present study was attempted to assess whether LVE assessed by echocardiography is related to diurnal variations of blood pressure in patiens with essential hypertension. METHOD: After 24hr ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, echocardiographic parameters were investigated in 30 healthy normotensive subjects and 17 patients with diurnal variation of blood pressure and 19 patients without diurnal variation respectively. RESULTS: Left ventricular mass index was higher in essential hypertensive patients than normotensive subjects. In patients without nocturnal fall in systolic blood pressure, left ventricular mass tended to be higher than in patients with a nocturnal fall without statistic significance. In the hypertensive patients with nocturnal fall, there was a correlationship between LVMI and changes in systolic blood pressure, but no correlation between left ventricular mass index and changes in diastolic blood pressure. In the hypertensive patients without nocturnal fall, changes of both systolic and diastolic pressure did not affect LVMI. CONCLUSION: It is suggested strongly that left ventricular hypertrophy may occur highly in the hypertensive patients without nocturnal(diurnal) variation in blood pressure and may be associated with changes in diastolic and systolic blood pressure. But in hypertensive patient with nocurnal fall, left ventricular hypertrophy may be associated with changes in systolic blood pressure.