Left atrial dilatation: A target organ damage in young to middle-age hypertensive patients. The Campania Salute Network.

BACKGROUND: Left atrial (LA) volume is a predictor of outcome in hypertension. It is unclear whether or not this effect depends on coexisting target organ damage (TOD).

PURPOSE: To investigate whether LA volume predicts outcome independently of TOD [left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy (LVH) and/or carotid plaque] in a registry of hypertensive treated patients.

METHODS: From the Campania Salute Network registry, we selected 5844 young adult hypertensive patients <65 years old (mean age 50 ± 9 years, 41% women, 8% diabetic) without prevalent CV or valvular heart disease more than mild, with normal LV ejection fraction, stage III or less CKD and available follow-up. LA volume was estimated from LA diameter applying a validated nonlinear equation, and indexed to body height in meters to the second power (eLAVI). Composite fatal and non-fatal stroke, myocardial infarction, sudden cardiac death, heart failure, TIA, myocardial revascularization, de novo angina, carotid stenting or atrial fibrillation (AF) were adjudicated as incident CV events.

RESULTS: 565 (10%) patients exhibited dilated initial eLAVI. During a median follow-up of 49 months, 233 patients developed CV events. Multivariable Cox regression analysis, demonstrated that dilated eLAVI increased risk of incident composite CV events (HR 1.90, 95%CI 1.26-2.88, p = 0.002), independently of significant effect of older age, male sex, presence LVH and carotid plaque. Conclusions In middle aged, treated hypertensive patients, dilated eLAVI is associated with adverse CV risk profile and is a predictor of CV events independently of other markers of TOD. LA dilatation should be considered as a TOD.