Prevalence of Aortic Root Dilation and Correlates of Aortic Root Dimensions in Treatment Naïve Hypertensive Patients in North-Eastern Nigeria

Background: Systemic arterial hypertension is an independent predictor of cardiovascular diseases including aortic root dilation. Aortic root dilation is a hypertension-mediated organ damage entity regardless of age, gender, and body size. This study aims at determining the prevalence and associations of aortic root dilatation among treatment naïve hypertensive patients.

Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional study conducted at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital from June 2019 to June 2021. Study participants were treatment naïve hypertensive patients recruited consecutively from the outpatient clinic of the hospital and normotensive sex- and age-matched controls. End diastolic aortic root diameter was measured using 2D transthoracic echocardiography at the annulus, sinuses of Valsalva, and Sinotubular junction by leading-edge to a leading-edge convention as recommended by the American Society of Echocardiography in parasternal long-axis view.

Results: Three hundred treatment naïve hypertensive patients (39.0% females) and 300 health normotensive age-and sex-matched controls (38.3% females) were enrolled. The mean ages of the patients and controls were 46.4±12.5 years and 46.4 ± 12.4 years respectively. The mean aortic root diameter (in mm) was significantly higher in the treatment naïve hypertensive arm of the study at the levels [AoA (24.7 ± 3.9mm versus 22.5 ± 2.0mm, p = 0.002), SoV (33.1 ± 3.4mm versus 31.4 ± 3.4mm, p = 0.023), and STJ (27.8 ± 3.5mm versus 25.9 ± 2.2mm, p = 0.002)]. Males had larger absolute aortic root diameters than females, however, after indexing aortic root diameters for BSA, there was no significant difference. The prevalence of aortic root dilatation amongst the treatment naïve hypertensive patients was 1.3% at all considered levels.

Conclusion: The aortic root dimensions in the treatment naïve hypertensive patients were larger than in normotensive adults. The prevalence of aortic root dilation at all levels amongst treatment naïve hypertensive patients is 1.3%.