Prevalence of echocardiographic left atrial enlargement among hypertensive Nigerian subjects

Background: Left atrial enlargement (LAE) predispose to arrhythmias, atrial thrombogenesis and cardioembol-ic stroke. Whether LAE constitute a major risk among African hypertensive subjects is not well described. This study was aimed to describe the epidemiologic pattern of LAE among hypertensive subjects and determine their correlates. Methods: Clinical and demographic details of 414 hypertensive subjects used were taken. Echocardiography was done. LAE was defined as Left atrial dimension (LAD ) 3.7 cm. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 17.0. Result: 414 subjects including 258 (62.3%) males were recruited. The mean age was 56.8??16.8 years. LAE was present in 57.73% of hypertensive subjects. Those with LAE were likely to be older (58.23??14.5 vs. 54.8 ??19.7 years, p<0.05), had a higher waist circumference (88.1 ??26.8 ??75.8 ??28.4 cm, p<0.05), left ventricular mass index (79.2 ?? 12.4 vs. 48.7 ??15.5g/m2.7 , p<0.05) and a higher frequency of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) (65.3% vs. 40.0 %, p<0.05) respectively than those without LAE. LAD was significantly high- er among those with LVH than those without LVH (41.4 ??8.4 vs. 35.6 ??5.9 mm respectively, p<0.05). Conclusion: LAE is common among Nigerian hypertensive subjects. Age, waist circumference, left ventricular wall dimension and mass index are the important correlates of LAE in hypertensive Nigerians.

Automated summary

This study describes the epidemiologic pattern of left atrial enlargement (LAE) among hypertensive subjects in Nigeria and identifies the important correlates. Age, waist circumference, left ventricular wall dimension, and mass index were found to be significantly associated with LAE.