Left ventricular mass in middle-aged men. Relationship to blood pressure, sympathetic nervous activity, hormonal and metabolic factors.

Left ventricular (LV) mass was studied echocardiographically in 120 middle-aged men representing a wide range of blood pressures (BP) and its relation to the following factors was analysed: BP measured in different resting situations and during isometric exercise, 24 hour urinary noradrenaline excretion and plasma noradrenaline, plasma renin activity, plasma angiotensin II, plasma aldosterone, blood glucose and plasma insulin. Each BP measurement showed weak but significant correlation with LV mass in the entire study group. In the upper BP range only BP measured during isometric exercise was correlated with LV mass. In the upper BP range there were also significant correlations between both the 24 hour urinary noradrenaline excretion and plasma aldosterone and LV mass, while blood glucose and plasma insulin were significantly correlated with LV mass in the intermediate BP range. Thus there was a surprisingly low correlation between LV mass and arterial BP. The findings regarding sympathetic nervous activity, hormonal and metabolic factors might indicate that these factors are involved in the pathogenesis of an increased LV mass in some individuals with essential hypertension.