[Echocardiographic studies in patients with arterial hypertension and above-normal body weight (preliminary report)]

24 echocardiographic parameters were studied in 94 patients with arterial hypertension I and II stage, 25 of the patients were with normal body mass and 65 patients were obese (above normal body mass). Simultaneous M-type and two-dimensional echocardiographic recordings were taken. In the non-obese hypertensive patients the left ventricular hypertrophy was of the concentric type while in the obese hypertensive patients it was of the eccentric type. The correlative analysis between the changes of the echocardiographic parameters and the degree of obesity revealed an exceptionally great correlation with the diastolic and systolic dimensions and the volumes of the left ventricle, the left ventricular muscular mass and its index. The ratio between the left ventricular muscular mass and the left ventricular diastolic volume does not change significantly with the increase of the body mass and could be used for differentiation of the cardiac dilatation which is not due to the increased body mass.