Impact of antihypertensive treatment on left ventricular systolic dyssynchrony in treatment-naïve hypertensive patients

Dyssynchrony is common in asymptomatic patients with hypertension. We sought to investigate the impact of antihypertensive treatment on dyssynchrony in patients with hypertension. A total of sixty patients who had uncomplicated hypertension that had never been treated (treatment-naïve hypertensive patients) underwent echocardiographic evaluations of left ventricular (LV) dyssynchrony at baseline and after a 6-month treatment with antihypertensive drugs. The measured parameters were as follows: (1) the s.d. of 12 LV-segment time-to-peak systolic velocities (Ts-SD12), and (2) the maximal difference between peak systolic velocities of any 2 of the 12 segments (Ts-Max). Patients with Ts-SD12 ≥ 33 ms or Ts-Max ≥ 100 ms were regarded as having LV systolic dyssynchrony. Patients with systolic dyssynchrony (group 1, n = 29) and without systolic dyssynchrony (group 2, n = 31) were compared. Among the patients in group 1, antihypertensive treatment significantly improved LV systolic dyssynchrony (ΔTs-SD12, -13.1 ms; P