Objective: The aim of our study is to asses the potential interrelationship of carotid hemodynamic parameters and left ventricular geometry in patients with arterial hypertension.
Methods: A descriptive transversal crossectional study included 84 patients (40 females and 44 males, mean age 42.26±11.2 years) with grade I-III arterial hypertension. All subjects underwent careful clinical history and physical examination to reveal risk factors, cardiovascular history and treatments. Blood test, echocar-diography and carotid Doppler ultrasound to calculate the carotid intima-media wall thickness (IMT) and re-sistive index of both common carotid arteries – carotid resistive index (CRI) were performed.
Results: The mean CRI was 0.81±0.07, the mean IMT was 1.18±0.28, the mean 24 hours systolic blood pre-ssure (SBP) was 142.2±15.8 mmHg, mean 24 hours diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 77.1±22.4 mmHg. The mean pulse pressure (PP) was 59.10±22.90 mmHg. The mean 24 hours heart rate (HR) was 75.14±26.86 bpm. CRI was possitively correlated with 24 hours SBP (r = 0.44), 24 hours DBP (r = 0.15), ambulatory PP (r=0.366), left ventricular mass (LVM) (r = 0.127), re-lative wall thickness (RWT) (r=0.311), carotid IMT (r=0,672) and a negative correlation was found betwe-en CRI and HR (r=-0.389). In multiple regression analysis, it was revealed an important interconnection between IRC and IMT, as well the fact that mean 24 hours SBP, LVM, RWT and carotid IMT were main determinants of CRI.
Conclusions: Although carotid hemodynamic pa-rameters reflect the aterosclerotic process in an indi-rect manner, it highlight the correlation between the left ventricular remodelling, carotid remodelling and systemic hemodynamics in arterial hypertension.