Beijing Hypertension Prevention Association

This article compared the performance of 18 electrocardiographic (ECG) left ventricular hypertrophic (LVH) criteria and four P-wave indices for the diagnosis of echocardiographic (ECHO) LVH and left atrial enlargement (LAE), including the deepest S-wave amplitude added to the S-wave amplitude of lead V4 (SD +SV4 ) and P-wave terminal force in lead V1 (PTFV1 ). A total of 152 middle-aged hypertensive patients without evident cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) were enrolled. The gold standard for the diagnosis of LVH and LAE was ECHO left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and largest left atrial volume index (LAVI). For the detection of LVH, Sokolow-Lyon voltage, Cornell voltage, Cornell product, SD +SV4 , Manning, and R+S in any precordial lead had relatively higher sensitivity, especially SD +SV4 criteria. Their combination could further increase sensitivity (43% vs 29% [SD +SV4 ], P=0.016). PTFV1 was the only criterion that had significant diagnostic value for ECHO LAE (AUC, 0.68; 95% CI: 0.54-0.73, P=0.008). For middle-aged hypertensive patients without evident cardiovascular diseases, SD +SV4 had the highest sensitivity for the diagnosis of LVH and the combination of several ECG LVH criteria might further increase sensitivity. PTFV1 had significant diagnostic value for ECHO LAE.

This study investigated the possible association of nifedipine (NIF) intake and diabetes mellitus (DM) with periodontal destruction. A group of Chinese subjects (N = 1,083, age: 63 +/- 8.7 years) were screened. Three hundred fifty-eight non-smokers with hypertension were selected for the study and were grouped based on DM status as non-DM and DM groups, DM(-) and DM(+) respectively. NIF(+) and NIF(-) indicated NIF intake or not. The groups were further divided: NIF(-)/DM(-) (n = 135); NIF(+)/DM(-) (n = 108); NIF(-)/DM(+) (n = 64); and NIF(+)/DM(+) (n = 51). The periodontal conditions in anterior teeth were assessed using plaque index, sulcus bleeding index, clinical attachment loss (AL), probing depth (PD), and the number of missing teeth. Using analysis of covariance, NIF intake was associated with mean PD and extent of PD > or =4 mm in the non-DM and DM groups. The subjects in the NIF(+)/DM(+) subgroup showed greater mean AL and percentage of sites with AL > or =5 mm and AL > or =7 mm than those in NIF(-)/DM(+) subgroup, whereas no significant difference existed between subjects in NIF(-)/DM(-) and NIF(+)/DM(-) subgroups. The NIF(+)/DM(+) subgroup exhibited a greater percentage of sites with AL > or =5 mm (35.5%) compared to the other three subgroups (24.7% for NIF[-]/DM[-], P = 0.004; 25.0% for NIF[+]/DM[-], P = 0.007; and 25.2% for NIF[-]/DM[+], P = 0.016). Logistic regression analysis showed that the NIF(+)/DM(+) subgroup had a significantly higher risk for having >10% of sites with AL > or =5 mm compared to the NIF(-)/DM(-) subgroup (odds ratio [OR] = 2.9; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.2 to 7.4; P = 0.022), the NIF(+)/DM(-) subgroup (OR = 3.1; 95% CI: 1.2 to 8.1; P = 0.020), and the NIF(-)/DM(+) subgroup (OR = 5.1; CI: 1.8 to 14.3; P = 0.002). NIF intake may increase the risk for periodontal destruction in patients with type 2 DM.