Abstract
The aim of this chapter is to review the literature on the use of surface electrocardiography for evaluating target-organ damage in patients with hypertension. Topics covered include a brief introduction to basic electrocardiography, pathophysiology and prognostic implications of electrocardiographic left ventricular hypertrophy, imaging surrogates and predictive value of the electrocardiographic “strain” pattern (lateral ST-T abnormalities) in hypertensive patients with and without obstructive coronary artery disease, correlates of intracardiac conduction delay (QRS duration) with risk of incident heart failure and sudden cardiac death in patients with and without concomitant left ventricular hypertrophy, clinical implications of preexisting atrial fibrillation, and novel evidence identifying new-onset atrial fibrillation as a marker of left ventricular decomenpensation in hypertension. Finally, this chapter discusses the recently proposed entity of “electrical” hypertrophy as compared to anatomical hypertrophy by echocardiogram or MRI and how this may play into the future role of classic electrocardiography as a low-cost risk-stratification tool in hypertensive patients.
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Greve, A.M., Okin, P.M., Olsen, M.H., Wachtell, K. (2015). Evaluation of Cardiac Damage in Hypertension: Electrocardiography. In: Agabiti Rosei, E., Mancia, G. (eds) Assessment of Preclinical Organ Damage in Hypertension. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15603-3_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15603-3_1
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