Left ventricular hypertrophy as a risk factor in hypertension.

: Hypertension is established as one of the major risk factors for congestive heart failure, renal failure, cerebrovascular accident and coronary artery disease. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is an adaptive response to the increased afterload in hypertension, and therefore serves to normalize wall stress. However, LVH has been established as an independent risk factor for adverse cardiovascular events and death in hypertension. For this reason, considerable attention has been directed towards a better understanding of LVH as a risk factor. As recognition of the risk associated with LVH has grown, investigators have increasingly focused attention on improving methods for the detection of LVH, assessing its effects on cardiac function, defining its relationship with myocardial ischaemia and sudden death, evaluating the role of antihypertensive treatment in the regression of LVH and assessing whether such regression is beneficial in the long term.