Effect of Blood Pressure Control on Left Atrium Functions as Assessed by 2D Echocardiography in Newly Diagnosed Patients with Systemic Hypertension

Abstract Aim and Objectives The aim of the study is to study the effect of adequate blood pressure control on left atrial functions measured by 2D echocardiography in newly diagnosed patients with systemic hypertension. Patients and Methods The study was carried out on 50 Patients with recently diagnosed systemic arterial hypertension and uncontrolled on medications presenting to Ain Shams university hospitals. The patients were assessed regarding the demographic data, risk factors, general examination, local examination, ECG, echocardiography and laboratory measures. Then follow up done after 6 months of proper control of blood pressure (BP) according to JNC 10 in the form of ECG and Echocardiograph Results In our study the results showed PALS (peak atrial longitudinal strain) showed increase with change of the mean from 35.04 ± 4.33 to 38.92 ± 5.52with P-value below 0.001. PACS (peak atrial contraction strain)showed increase with change of the mean from 17.38 ± 4.67 to 20.46 ± 4.39 with P-value below 0.001. Mitral peak early (E) and septal and lateral mitral annular velocities and their average (e`) E/e' showed decrease with change of the mean from 8.8 ± 0.93 to 7.8 ± 1.16 with P-value below 0.001. LASI(left atrium stiffness index) showed decrease with change of the mean from 0.24 ± 0.04 to 0.2 ± 0.03with P-value below 0.001. Conclusion Our study demonstrated that speckle tracking imaging could be used to detect subtle impairment of LA (left atrium) function in patients with hypertension. proper control of blood pressure in hypertensive patients lead to improvement in PALS, PACS, E/e' and LASI. The clinical usefulness of LA function by STE (speckle tracking echocardiography) in hypertensive patients merits further investigations to better precision of the role of the LA study in the prediction of atrial fibrillation, and the risk of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.