Hypertension: comparison between magnetocardiographic and ultra-sonographic findings

摘要

Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is recognized as one of the worst causes for cardiac syndrome and/or arrest. An early LVH detection is useful for patient treatment in order to reduce morbidity and mortality. In the present work we compare and combine echocardiographic findings with magnetocardiographic indexes aiming at evaluating those cardiological parameters that might give early indication for LVH. A patient group of 20 male patients affected by essential hypertension (age range 32 - 49), and a control group of 25 normal male subjects (age range 28-51) were enrolled. Each volunteer underwent two measuring sessions: an echo-Doppler cardiological examination by means of a commercial system, during which morphological and physiological parameters for the assessment of LV were acquired; the second exam is a magnetocardiography performed with the 55 channel flat system available at our Institute. During this last measurement the variations of the magnetic field associated with cardiac electrical activity are recorded; several parameters can be evaluated during post-processing, and some ad hoc indexes are calculated. In particular we computed the ratio between amplitude and duration of QRS complex and T wave, as well as the orientation of the electrical cardiac axis (ECA) during such phases of the cardiac cycle.