Echocardiographic assessment of left ventricular structure and function in hypertension. Methodology

M-mode and two-dimensional echocardiography now provide an armamentarium of noninvasive techniques that permit assessment of left ventricular pump function, quantitation of afterload, a load-independent assessment of contractile state, and quantitation of pressure overload hypertrophy. Combined application of these methods to problems in the assessment of hypertensive heart disease can clarify both disease mechanisms and therapeutic effects by identifying the contributions of changes in myocardial mass, alterations in contractile state and variations in afterload to a given phenomenon.