Prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy in diabetic patients

In order to establish the prevalence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus, (DM) a cross-sectional study was conducted in these patients studying their anthropometric characteristics, blood pressure and metabolic control. To evaluate the presence of LVH, a trans-thoracic echocardiogram was used. The study included 91 patients, finding a 63.7% prevalence of HVI, with women being more affected than men (p=0.001). Additionally, 46.2% of patients were found to have diastolic dysfunction of the left ventricle. We conclude that there is an important prevalence of LVH in diabetic patients without defined causes of hypertrophy. There was no association with sex, metabolic control, BMI and time of diagnosis.