Impact of dietary sodium intake on left ventricular diastolic filling in early essential hypertension

Aims Dietary sodium intake modulates left ventricular hypertrophy in established essential hypertension independent of blood pressure level. We conducted this study to elucidate the relationship between sodium intake and left ventricular structural or functional changes in early essential hypertension. Methods Forty-four young male patients (age 25.9 ± 2.6 years) with mild essential hypertension that had never been treated and 45 normotensive male control subjects of similar age were examined. Dietary sodium intake was measured from 24 h urinary sodium excretion, blood pressure from 24 h ambulatory monitoring (SpaceLabs 90207), left ventricular structure from 2-D guided M-mode echocardiography, and diastolic filling of the left ventricle (as the main compound of diastolic function in a young population) by pulse-wave Doppler sonography. Results In hypertensive patients, daily sodium excretion correlated with the ratio of late (A) to early (E) maximum velocity (Vmax AlE; r= +0.27, P=0.07), velocity time integrals (AlE; r= +0.54, P