Systolic time intervals in chronic hypertension: Alterations and response to treatment.

Systolic time interval studies were performed to evaluate left ventricular performance in 28 patients with untreated systemic hypertension but without clinical heart failure. The pre-ejection period (PEP) was significantly prolonged (p smaller than 0.001) and left ventricular ejectime time (LVET) was shortened (p smaller than 0.02) when compared to rate-corrected predicted values. The PEP/LVET ratio was abnormally high in 18 of the patients and the average ratio was 0.45 ( smaller than 0.001). Eleven patients with abnormal time intervals were restudied during treatment with antilypertensive drugs. The PEP/LVET raio decreased in ten and became normal in nine. The average ratio decreased from 0.49 to 0.41 (p smaller than 0.001), due to both shortening of PEP (p smaller than 0.02) and lengthening of LVET (p smaller than 0.001). These findings indicate that alterations in left ventricular function may occur commonly in chronic hypertension in the absence of clinical heart failure, and can be reversed with appropriate therapy. This technique may be useful in evaluating hypertensive patients and in determining the efficacy of treatment.