OBJECTIVETo assess the clinical value of left ventricular Tei-index in early evaluation of cardiac function in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy after radiochemotherapy.

METHODSThirty hypertensive patients with malignancies and left ventricular hypertrophy and 30 hypertensive patients with malignancies without left ventricular hypertrophy were enrolled in this study, with 30 normotensive patients with malignancies as the control group. Left ventricular Tei-index and cardiac function indexes of the patients were detected using Doppler echocardiography before and after radiochemotherapy, and the changes in the cardiac function index and left ventricular Tei-index were compared among the 3 groups.

RESULTSAfter radiochemotherapy, left ventricular Tei-index was significantly higher in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy than in the control patients and hypertensive patients without left ventricular hypertrophy (P<0.05), and was similar between the latter two groups. No significant differences were found in the changes of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF), ratio of the early to late ventricular filling velocities (E/A ratio), or end-systolic volume (EDV) among the 3 groups after radiochemotherapy.

CONCLUSIONTei-index is more sensitive than traditional echocardiography in assessing the changes of cardiac functions in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy after chemotherapy.