Hypertension related aortic regurgitation [ht –related ar], its prevalence and prognostic significance

Aortic Regurgitation [AR] is diastolic flow of blood from aorta to left ventricle. AR could be acute or more commonly chronic. chronic AR could congenital or acquired .it could be due to valve leaflet pathology, aortic wall defect or both. Severe, prolong hypertension can cause aortic root dilatation and consequently lead to AR. The aim of this study is to estimate the prevalence of AR in prolong hypertension i.e. hypertension related aortic regurgitation [HT- related AR] and prognostic significance of AR in hypertensive patients. 430 patients (206 female, 224 male) with history of hypertension for at least 5 years were enrolled in this study, same number of non hypertensive patients of similar age and gender were used as control Patients with AR due to obvious cause are excluded from the study. 2- D color Doppler ECHO study was done for both groups to detect AR in theme. The result showed that patients with hypertension are more prone to develop AR than non –hypertensive patients, and HT-related AR was more common in male than female, and it is related to the duration and severity of hypertension. HT-related AR also associated with other ECHO –bad prognostic criteria of hypertension like left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and left atrial enlargement, so we can consider HT-related AR as additional bad prognostic ECHO criteria of hypertension.