ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT OF LEFT VENTRICULAR HYPERTROPHY IN PATIENTS OF CHRONIC RENAL FAILURE.

Introduction: In the recent years, the prevalence of Chronic Renal failure has increased in the community, resulting in increasing number of admission and decreased life expectancy. Chronic Renal Failure affects almost all systems of body and results in various abnormalities. Of the various causes, infection and cardiovascular events contributes towards large proportion of increased morbidity and mortality. Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) is a major Echocardiographic nding in Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) and there is scanty information on the prevalence of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and nature of LVH in patients with CRF.Aim of the present study is to estimate the prevalence of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy by Echocardiography in patients with Chronic Renal Failure and to nd out Correlation of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy with severity of Chronic Renal Failure. Methodology: a cross sectional observational study done on total of 100 Chronic Renal Failure patients admitted or who visited on outpatient basis to KMC Hospital over a period of 2 years formed the study population. Detailed history, Clinical evaluation, Laboratory investigations, Echocardiography was carried out. Analysis of the data was performed using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software. Results: The Prevalence of Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Chronic Renal failure was 69%, consisting of 67% males and 33% females, majority of the patients age group was between 51-60 years and 61-70 years. In the present study, we found that Left Ventricular Mass Index (LVMI) which reects Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH) showed a progressive rise with increase in severity of renal failure with 17% of Mild CRF category having LVH as compared to 26% of Moderate CRF category and 57% of patients of Severe CRF category having LVH. Conclusions: The high prevalence of Left ventricular hypertrophy in these populations on echocardiography implies that these patients require detailed cardiovascular evaluation despite absence of symptoms, and also that various efforts aimed at prevention and control of left ventricular hypertrophy should be started early during the course of renal insufciency.