Cardiac 31P-MRS compared to echocardiographic findings in patients with hypertensive heart disease without overt systolic dysfunction—Preliminary results

Abstract Purpose To evaluate changes in high energy phosphate (HEP) metabolism in patients with hypertension and diastolic dysfunction but with normal LVEF > 55% assessed by echocardiography and tissue Doppler. Material and methods 20 patients (16 men and 4 women, mean age 57 ± 13 years) were studied with phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy and echocardiography. MRS was performed at 1.5 T using an ECG-gated CSI sequence with nuclear Overhauser effect. According to echocardiographical findings 12 patients were found to have a diastolic dysfunction, whereas 8 patients were identified as normal, serving as control group in the following statistical analysis. All patients had normal systolic function (LVEF > 55%).Statistical analysis was made by using mean ± S.D. for description of the data, Spearman correlation and two-tailed Student's t -test for independent samples. Results No differences were found in weight, age, LVEF, endsystolic volume, end-diastolic volume, cardiac output and BNP levels between patients and control group. Myocardial mass at end-diastole correlated significantly with PCr/ATP ratio ( r  = −0.66; p  = 0.04) in patients and control group. Myocardial PCr/ATP ratio in patients was significantly decreased compared to controls (1.21 ± 0.22 vs. 1.54 ± 0.24; p  = 0.006). Conclusions Cardiac 31 P-MRS might offer a noninvasive means for detecting early states of heart failure in hypertensive patients.