Left Ventricular Measurements in Black Sub-Saharan Africans and White Maghreb

Abstract

Background: Evidence that blacks have greater left ventricular mass (LVM) than whites has been demonstrated by large population-based American studies. However, to our knowledge, there is no study to date comparing LVM in Black Sub-Saharan Africans (BSSA) and the Maghreb white population. We compared LVM measured echocardiographically in asymptomatic BSSA and Maghreb. Methods and Results: A total of 100 asymptomatic BSSA and 189 Maghreb, (18 to 55 years old), underwent resting two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiography. LVM and geometry were assessed according to the 2015 American Society of Echocardiography and the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging updated guidelines for cardiac chamber quantification. Crude or indexed LVM to body surface area or height2.7 was similar in BSSA and in Maghreb (132.7 ± 37.0 vs. 134.2 ± 35.7 g; 73.1 ± 17.8 vs. 72.9 ± 16.2 g/m2; 32.1 ± 9.8 vs. 33.6 ± 9.5 g/m2.7). However, the left ventricular posterior wall was thicker in BSSA. Patterns of left ventricular geometry (normal, concentric remodeling, or concentric or eccentric hypertrophy) were equally distributed among the two ethnic groups. Conclusions: Left ventricular posterior wall thickness but not LVM is greater in BSSA than in Maghreb.