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A reduction in electrocardiographic LV hypertrophy (LVH) has been associated with decreased cardiovascular death, stroke, MI, and atrial fibrillation (Journal Watch Cardiology Dec 24 2004). To examine the relation between reduction of electrocardiographic LVH and incident heart failure, investigators from the Losartan Intervention For Endpoint reduction in hypertension (LIFE) study analyzed data for 8479 hypertensive patients without a history of HF who were randomly assigned to receive either losartan or atenolol for hypertension.
A total of 214 patients (2.5%) experienced new-onset HF during a mean follow-up period of 4.7 years. Patients who developed HF were older and more likely to be black, to be diabetic, and to have a strong history o…