One hundred and forty-seven patients with essential hypertension (EH) and 126 patients with secondary arterial hypertension (AH) on the basis of chronic pyelonephritis were studied by means of radiocardiography with 131I-albumin and M-mode echocardiography. The importance of the haemodynamic type of circulation for the development of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was established. Correlative analysis revealed that the influence of arterial pressure (AP) on LVH is increased by stabilization of AH, especially in patients with the normo- and hypokinetic types of circulation; interestingly, the relation between LVH and systolic pressure was closer than that between LVH and diastolic pressure, especially in patients with secondary AH. Moreover, it was shown that the development of LVH is due to a preferential increase in posterior wall thickness in essential hypertensives and in ventricular septal thickness in secondary hypertensives, although all patients with LVH had dilatation of the left ventricular cavity.

Institute of Cardiology Republic of Armenia Yerevan