Objectives
Ascending aorta dilatation (AAD) has been suggested as a surrogate marker for vascular organ damage in the hypertensive population. However, limited data are available on AAD in normotensive individuals. This study aims to preliminarily explore the correlation between ascending aorta (AAO) and other established clinically significant target organ damage parameters and to investigate the possible risk factors of AAD in the non-diabetic normotensive individuals.
Design
Our study has a cross-sectional design.
Setting
All participants were recruited from the inpatient and outpatient departments of our hospital.
Participants
We recruited 634 normotensive participants (52.26±16.22 years, 39.43% male) who underwent both ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) and echocardiography. The whole study population was divided into AAD and non-AAD groups according to age-gender-specific criteria. The baseline mean blood pressure (BP) of the two groups was 126.92/77.72 and 124.16/77.61 mm Hg, respectively.
Primary and secondary outcome measures
The relationship between AAO and other acknowledged cardiac damage indicators, as well as the associations of AAD with ABPM indexes in the non-diabetic normotensive individuals.
Results
We observed that AAO exhibited a significant correlation with left ventricular mass index (β=1.905, p