Advantages of Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH)

This is a 15-year-old post about LVH, written in 2008. Few of my colleagues, now agree with this, but still hesitate to oblige in  the open, suggesting it is too good to be true! Re-posting it for your own assessment. Surprised, why cardiology community didn’t consider this observation worthy to pursue. Advantages of Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) Left ventricular hypertrophy is one of the most common clinical cardiac entity.It is recognised either by ECG or echocardiography.LVH has a unique place in cardiology as it can imply a  grossly pathological state or  a marker of healthy heart as in physiological hypertrophy in athletes. Logic would suggest, in this era of stem cells and  nano medicine ,  every muscle fibre in ventricle is worth in gold !. So when the nature provides an extra reserve of myocardium in the form of LVH one should welcome it, if otherwise not harmful. Is LVH due to systemic hypertension benign ? Not really, LVH has been shown to be an independent cardiac risk factor. (The famous Framingham study)Further LVH can result in diastolic dysfunction and the risk of cardiac failure increases. But in spite of these observations, an  astute clinician with considerable experience will appreciate , patients with LVH fare better during an acute coronary syndrome ! This has been a consistent clinical observation . (Shall we call it as class C . ACC /AHA evidence? ) Is LVH  an asset during ACS ? A hypertrophied heart takes ischemic inju...
Source: Dr.S.Venkatesan MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs