Incidence of Ventricular Arrhythmia in Hypertensive Left Ventricular Hypertrophy

The incidence of ventricular arrhythmia was examined with 24-hour ambulatory Holter recordings in three groups of patients. 25 hypertensive patients in the first group had left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) [LVH (+) group] and 25 hypertensive patients in the second group had no LVH [LVH (-) group] in echocardiographic evaluation. 25 healthy subjects in the third control group had similar distribution in age and sex. There were no significant differences with respect to age, sex and other risk factors in these three groups. In 24-hour Holter recordings the mean number of single ventricular premature beats (VPB) were 13±21, 28±33 and 162±346 in the control, LVH (-), and LVH (+) groups, respectively. The difference between the LVH ( +) and the control groups was significantly different (p<0.05). The mean number of total VPBs were 13±21, 28±33 and 214±445 in the control, LVH (-), LVH (+) groups. LVH (+) group was significantly different than the other two groups (p<0.05). Complex VA were found in 4 (16 %) casesin the control group, in 7 (28 %) and 11 ( 44 %) patients in LVH (-) and LVH ( +) groups. LVH (+) group was significantly higher (p<0.05) than the control group. We believe that the high incidence of ventricular arrhythmias is related to LVH.