Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Children with Hypertension: in Search of a Definition

Abstract

Purpose of review: The purpose of this review is to provide background on the importance of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) in children with hypertension, to highlight various diagnostic modalities and measures for defining LVH, and to demonstrate the need for standardization and a consensus definition for LVH in the pediatric population.

Recent findings: There is no clear consensus among specialists performing echocardiograms and treating clinicians on the definition of LVH in children with hypertension. In fact, there is considerable variation in every step of the evaluation of pediatric LVH. There is variation in every step of the assessment of LVH in the pediatric population. This variation exists in imaging modality, the type of measurement used, the method of calculating left ventricular mass (LVM), the method of indexing LVM to body size, the normalization method for the index used, the reference data used, the inclusion of confounders, the implementation in clinical practice, and the format for echocardiography reporting.

Keywords: Children; Definition; Echocardiogram; Hypertension; Left ventricular hypertrophy; Target organ damage.