The authors present a group of 143 hypertonic patients divided into three subgroups by the stage of hypertension (WHO). The objective was to detect an association between the incidence of cardiac dysrhythmias and the stage of hypertension and left ventricular (LV) morphological and functional parameters resp. which were assessed by echocardiography (ECHOCR). The authors investigated the systolic pressure (BPs) and diastolic pressure (BPd) on admission and the following ECHOCR parameters: weight of the left ventricle, tension of the LV wall during end systole, maximum tension of the LV wall, fractionated shortening of the Lv wall and the relative width of the LV wall. Comparison of clinical and ECHOCR parameters in groups revealed significantly lower values of BPs on admission in patients in the first stage of hypertension (p less than 0.01), the tension of the LV wall during end systole was in the third stage of hypertension significantly higher (p less than 0.01). In patients in the first stage there was a positive correlation between systolic pressure on admission and the fractional shortening of the LV (r = 0.568, p less than 0.025) and between diastolic pressure and the maximum tension of the LV wall (r = 0.572, p less than 0.025). They did not reveal an association between different stages of hypertension and the incidence of dysrhythmias. The group of patients with chronic atrial fibrillation had significantly larger dimensions of the left atrium, as compared with other groups of dysrhythmias. The authors were unable to reveal an association between the assessed morphological and functional parameters of the LV in different stages of hypertension and the incidence of dysrhythmias.

Keywords: Aged; Arrhythmias, Cardiac /etiology/; Echocardiography; Female; Humans; Hypertension /complications/; Male; Middle Aged; Ventricular Function, Left