Aims: To study the relationship between volume and pressure load on the one hand and relative wall thickness (RWT) on the other hand in former preeclamptic women.
Methods: In 654 former PE women, blood pressure (BP) and PV (iodine 125 albumin indicator dilution technique) where measured. PV was indexed for body surface area (BSA). Echocardiography was performed to calculate RWT. The study population was divided in 4 subgroups consisting of women with either normal- or high-systolic BP (sysBP) (<140 versus ≥140mmHg, respectively) and normal- or low-PV index (>1373 versus ≤1373 ml/m2 respectively). Differences between the four subgroups where analyzed with ANOVA. Pearson's rho is calculated for the correlation between PV and sysBP on the one hand and RWT on the other hand.
Results: RWT was the lowest in the group with normal sysBP and normal PV and the highest in the subgroup with high sysBP and low PV subgroup (Table 1). Moreover, PVindex correlated negatively with RWT in the setting of both normal sysBP and high sysBP (Figure 1a and b) while systolic BP correlated positively with RWT in the setting of normal sysBP but not in the setting of high sysBP (Figure 1c and d).
Discussion: Raised RWT, as a measure for concentric remodelling, relates to both decreased volume load and increased pressure load.