Prevalence of the proximal aortic root dilatation and it relationship with left ventricular remodelling among South-Kivu Congolese patients: A cross sectional study

Aim: Studies of the influence of aortic root remodelling on the left ventricle are scarce in sub Saharan Africa even though this region has got high prevalence of arterial hypertension which is positively related to sinuses of Valsalva diameter. The present work aims to determine the frequency of the proximal aortic root enlargement and to evaluate its association with the left ventricle structure and function respectively among Congolese patients. Method: Four hundreds and three (403) patients who realised transthoracic cardiac echography were recruited. The association between the proximal aortic root diameter and the left ventricular echocardiographic parameters was modelised in a multiple linear regression using the Stepwise method. Results: Among the 403 patients, 69.4% were hypertensive. A multivariate linear regression analysis showed correlations between the proximal aortic root diameter and the left ventricular mass (β = 1.12; P = 0.01), the left ventricular diastolic diameter (β = 0.26, P = 0.001) and the E/A ratio (β = −0.02; P < 0.0001) respectively. The independent predictor of the proximal aortic root diameter were age (β = 0.06, P = 0.0006), duration of arterial hypertension (β = 0.11, P = 0.002) and diastolic blood pressure (β = 0.03; P = 0.02). The frequency of the proximal aortic root dilatation was 3.5%. Conclusion: These results infancies the importance of including the proximal aortic root dilatation as specific infra clinic risk factor among Congolese.