Left ventricular diastolic function in physiologic and pathologic hypertrophy

Abstract Background Patients with hypertensive heart disease and left ventricular hypertrophy demonstrate an impaired left ventricular diastolic filling pattern. The aim of this study was to find out whether physiologic left ventricular hypertrophy induced by endurance training causes disturbances in left ventricular systolic and diastolic filling. Methods We examined 49 athletes with left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy due to endurance training, 49 patients with LV hypertrophy due to arterial hypertension, and 26 untrained healthy control subjects by conventional echocardiography. Parameters of LV diastolic filling using pulse wave and color flow Doppler were also assessed. Results All three study groups showed normal fractional shortening and mid-wall fractional shortening. Conventional echocardiography revealed a higher LV muscle mass index in the two study groups compared with the controls (athletes, 99 ± 10 g; hypertensive patients, 95 ± 11 g; controls: 52 ± 7 g; P Conclusions Doppler echocardiographic parameters of LV diastolic function can be of diagnostic importance for discrimination between pathologic and physiologic LV hypertrophy.