Echocardiographic Correlates of Left Atrial Size in Hypertensive Patients
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.71637/tnhj.v25i1.984Keywords:
Left Atrial correlates, Hypertensive Heart DiseaseAbstract
Background: There has been a growing interest in the left atrial structure and function and the vital role it plays in heart diseases. This study set out to access echocardiographic left atrial correlates in hypertensive subjects. This study assessed Echocardiographic Left Atrial Correlates in a hypertensive population attending a tertiary institution.
Method: A Prospective cross-sectional study, which recruited hypertensives, non-diabetic subjects, for which Echocardiography was performed using a predefined imaging protocol in the Rivers State University Teaching Hospital, Echocardiogram laboratory after collecting information on demographics, blood pressure, weight and height by an interviewer. Data collected was processed with Excel and SPSS (25)
Results: Three hundred and sixty-two subjects who had adequate data were evaluated. 182(50.3%) females and 180(49.7%) males, with mean; age of 55.20 ± 13.77yrs, BMI of 28.86 ± 8.77 kg/m2, systolic and diastolic blood pressures of 143.00 ± 19.08mmHg and 86.34±14.53mmHg respectively. Bivariate correlation using Pearson correlation coefficient showed a significant correlation between Left atrial size/I; LV E/A ratio (.097*), LV internal diameter (.286**), LV relative wall thickness (.129**) and LV Mass/I(241**)
Conclusion: This study found significant correlations between left atrial size and various echocardiographic parameters in hypertensive patients, highlighting its role as a marker for left ventricular remodelling and cardiovascular risk. Notably, left atrial enlargement was associated with abnormal diastolic function, increased left ventricular mass, and reduced systolic function. These findings suggest that monitoring left atrial size could be crucial for assessing cardiovascular risk in hypertensive populations.
Downloads
References
1. Hendriks T, Said MA, Janssen LMA, et al. Effect of Systolic Blood Pressure on Left Ventricular Structure and Function: A Mendelian Randomization Study. Hypertension. 2019;74(4):826-8321.
2. Gustavo G. Blume, Christopher J. Mcleod, Marion E. Barnes, James B. Seward, Patricia A. Pellikka, Paul M. Bastiansen, Teresa S.M. Tsang, Left atrial function: physiology, assessment, and clinical implications, European Journal of Echocardiography, Volume 12, Issue 6, June 2011:421–430, https://doi.org/10.1093/ejechocard/jeq175
3. Ferkh A, Clark A, Thomas L Left atrial phasic function: physiology, clinical assessment and prognostic value, Heart 2023;109:1661-166
4. Inciardi RM, Bonelli A, Biering-Sorensen T, Cameli M, Pagnesi M, Lombardi CM, Solomon SD, Metra M. Left atrial disease and left atrial reverse remodelling across different stages of heart failure development and progression: a new target for prevention and treatment. Eur J Heart Fail. 2022 Jun;24(6):959-975. doi: 10.1002/ejhf.2562. Epub 2022 Jun 6. PMID: 35598167; PMCID: PMC9542359.
5. Zhou D, Yang W, Yang Y, Yin G, Li S, Zhuang B, Xu J, He J, Wu W, Jiang Y, Sun X, Wang Y, Sirajuddin A, Zhao S, Lu M. Left atrial dysfunction may precede left atrial enlargement and abnormal left ventricular longitudinal function: a cardiac MR feature tracking study. BMC Cardiovasc Disord. 2022 Mar 13;22(1):99. doi: 10.1186/s12872-022-02532-w. PMID: 35282817; PMCID: PMC8919633.
6. Ikejder Y, Sebbani M, Hendy I, Khramz M, Khatouri A, Bendriss L. Impact of Arterial Hypertension on Left Atrial Size and Function. Biomed Res Int. 2020 Sep 14; 2020:2587530. doi: 10.1155/2020/2587530. PMID: 33015158; PMCID: PMC7512039.
7. Akintunde AA. Prevalence of echocardiographic left atrial enlargement among hypertensive Nigerian subjects. Afr Health Sci. 2022 Jun;22(2):257-263. doi: 10.4314/ahs.v22i2.29. PMID: 36407404; PMCID: PMC9652649.
8. Molnár A.Á, Merkely B. The Added Value of Atrial Strain Assessment in Clinical Practice. Diagnostics 2022, 12, 982. -Q7https://doi.org/10.3390/diagnostics12040982
9. Lang RM, Badano LP, Mor-Avi V, et al. Recommendations for cardiac chamber quantification by echocardiography in adults: an update from the American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging. J Am Soc Echocardiography 2015; 28:1-39. e14.
10. Gottdiener, J, Reda, D, Williams, D. et al. Left Atrial Size in Hypertensive Men: Influence of Obesity, Race and Age fn1. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1997 Mar, 29 (3) 651–658.https://doi.org/10.1016/S0735-1097(96)00554-2
11. Zhou D, Yang W, Yang Y, Yin G, Li S, Zhuang B, Xu J, He J, Wu W, Jiang Y, Sun X, Wang Y, Sirajuddin A, Zhao S, Lu M. Left atrial dysfunction may precede left atrial enlargement and abnormal left ventricular longitudinal function: a cardiac MR feature tracking study. BMC Cardiovasc Disorder. 2022 Mar 13;22(1):99. doi: 10.1186/s12872-022-02532-w. PMID: 35282817; PMCID: PMC8919633.
12. Seko Y, Kato T, Haruna T, Izumi T, Miyamoto S, Nakane E, Inoko M. Association between atrial fibrillation, atrial enlargement, and left ventricular geometric remodeling. Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 23;8(1):6366. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-24875-1. PMID: 29686287; PMCID: PMC5913256.
13. Hesse B, Schuele SU, Thamilasaran M, Thomas J, Rodriguez L. A rapid method to quantify left atrial contractile function: Doppler tissue imaging of the mitral annulus during atrial systole. Eur J Echocardiogr. 2004 Jan;5(1):86-92. doi: 10.1016/s1525-2167(03)00046-5. PMID: 15113019.
14. Vaziri SM, Larson MG, Lauer MS, Benjamin EJ, Levy D. Influence of blood pressure on left atrial size: The Framingham Heart Study. Hypertension. 1995 Jun;25(6):1155-60.
15. van de Vegte YJ, Siland JE, Rienstra M, van der Harst P. Atrial fibrillation and left atrial size and function: a Mendelian randomization study. Sci Rep. 2021 Apr 19;11(1):8431. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-87859-8. PMID: 33875748; PMCID: PMC8055882.
16. Rossi A, Cicoira M, Zanolla L, Sandrini R, Golia G, Zardini P, Enriquez-Sarano M. Determinants and prognostic value of left atrial volume in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2002 Oct 16;40(8):1425. doi: 10.1016/s0735-1097(02)02305-7. PMID: 12392832.
17. Bakalli A, Georgievska-Ismail L, Musliu N, Koçinaj D, Gashi Z, Zeqiri N. Relationship of left ventricular size to left atrial and left atrial appendage size in sinus rhythm patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Acta Inform Med. 2012 Jun;20(2):99-102. doi: 10.5455/aim.2012.20.99-102. PMID: 23322961; PMCID: PMC3544319.
18. Dittrich HC, Perace LA, Asinger RW, et al. Left Atrial Diameter in Nonvalvular Atrial Fibrillation: An Echocardiographic Study. Am Heart J. 1999;137(3):494–499.
19. Bakalli A, Kamberi L, Pllana E, Zahiti B, Dragusha G, Brovina A. The influence of left ventricular diameter on left atrial appendage size and thrombus formation in patients with dilated cardiomyopathy. Turk Kardiyol Dern Ars. 2010;38(2):90–94.
20. Koren MJ, Devereux RB, Casale PN, Savage DD, Laragh JH. Relation of left ventricular mass and geometry to morbidity and mortality in uncomplicated essential hypertension. Ann Intern Med. 1991 Mar 1;114(5):345-52.
21. Laukkanen JA, Khan H, Kurl S, Willeit P, Karppi J, Ronkainen K, et al. Left ventricular mass and the risk of sudden cardiac death: a population-based study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2014;3:e001285. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.114.001285.
22.Pathophysiology of Hypertensive Heart Disease: Beyond Left Ventricular Hypertrophy. Current Hypertension Reports. 2020;22(11):11-22. doi: 10.1007/s11906-020-1017-9
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Stella Cookey, Abiye Nonju, Bonas Bonaventure Harry

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The Journal is owned, published and copyrighted by the Nigerian Medical Association, River state Branch. The copyright of papers published are vested in the journal and the publisher. In line with our open access policy and the Creative Commons Attribution License policy authors are allowed to share their work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
This is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The use of general descriptive names, trade names, trademarks, and so forth in this publication, even if not specifically identified, does not imply that these names are not protected by the relevant laws and regulations. While the advice and information in this journal are believed to be true and accurate on the date of its going to press, neither the authors, the editors, nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein.
TNHJ also supports open access archiving of articles published in the journal after three months of publication. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g, in institutional repositories or on their website) within the stated period, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access). All requests for permission for open access archiving outside this period should be sent to the editor via email to editor@tnhjph.com.