RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: Systemic hypertension remains an important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases and a major global public health problem. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a recognized complication of hypertension and strongly predicts cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. In Nigeria, few studies evaluated the role of echocardiography in the diagnosis of LVHs among hypertensives. This study sets out to determine the prevalence of LVH among hypertensives as determined by echocardiography.MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and seventy-eight hypertensives and eighty-nine age and sex-matched controls were recruited consecutively into the study. They all had echocardiography done to determine which among had LVH. The partition value for LVH for hypertensives was determined using the 97th percentile of the left ventricular mass for controls as a cutoff point. RESULTS:Echocardiographic determined the prevalence of LVH among hypertensives was 32.4%.CONCLUSION:The echocardiographic prevalence of LVH was 32.4% in the study population. This is a significant proportion among the study population considering the clinical impact of LVH among patients with hypertension.