Left ventricular remodeling and torsion dynamics in hypertensive patients

Left ventricular (LV) torsion is a fundamental component of wall motion and plays an important role to optimize ventricular ejection fraction. The aim of our study was to calculate by speckle tracking echocardiography LV twist angle in patients with hypertension and LV remodeling, analyzing torsional indices in all patterns of hypertrophy, in comparison to torsional dynamics of age-matched healthy subjects. Hypertensive patients (n = 202) were divided in three groups, patients with concentric remodeling (n = 70), concentric hypertrophy (n = 68) and eccentric hypertrophy (n = 64), in relation to the echocardiographic measurements of relative wall thickness and LV mass, analyzing their torsional patterns by speckle tracking in comparison to age-matched control group. Compared to healthy controls, LV twist angle was increased in patients with hypertension and concentric remodeling (15.2° ± 1.9° vs. 11.0° ± 1.6°; p < 0.001), reaching the highest value in patients with concentric hypertrophy (19.4° ± 2.6°); instead LV twist angle presented depressed in the group of patients that presented eccentric hypertrophy (5.0° ± 1.1°). Regarding LV untwisting rate, it was higher in the concentric remodeling and concentric hypertrophy groups (−123.1°/s ± 12.1°/s and −145.1°/s ± 15.5°/s, respectively) in comparison with the controls (−90.0°/s ± 10.1°/s; p < 0.0001 for both). Instead, lower values of LV untwisting rate were observed in the eccentric remodeling group (−81.6°/s ± 8.1°/s), not significantly different to controls’ values (p = 0.09). Enhanced LV twist angle appears to be a compensatory mechanism in hypertensive patients during the earlier stages of concentric remodeling and concentric hypertrophy; this hyper-torsion is inevitably loss in the more advanced stage of eccentric hypertrophy.