Interrelation between midwall mechanics and longitudinal strain in newly diagnosed and never-treated hypertensive patients without clinically defined hypertrophy

BACKGROUND In hypertensive patients, an impairment of midwall myocardial mechanics was described in presence of left ventricular (LV) concentric geometry. Under these circumstances, also LV longitudinal dysfunction was found. PURPOSE Our aim was to evaluate longitudinal and circumferential systolic function and correlations between these two functional components in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients without clinically defined LV hypertrophy (LVH). One hundred and thirty-eight newly diagnosed, never-treated hypertensive patients without LVH and a control group of 105 healthy normotensive individuals underwent two-dimensional and speckle tracking echocardiography. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) was derived (in absolute value) and midwall fractional shortening (MFS) computed. In addition, the hypertensive population was divided into two groups according to GLS: normal GLS (≥20%, n = 94) and reduced GLS (