A CORRELATION STUDY BETWEEN RETINAL VASCULAR CHANGES, ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC ALTERATIONS AND RADIOLOGICAL HEART SIZE IN ESSENTIAL HYPERTENSION

Abstract

80 selected cases of essential hypertension were subjected to analysis of retinal vascular changes and electrocardiographic alterations, and 59 as to radiological heart size. Retinal vascular changes were noted in all the cases, with 885% graded as sclerosis, hypertensive type. The electrocardiogram revealed final deflection changes in 68.8%. A slight to moderate enlargement of the heart was noted in 50.8%, and a marked degree in 27.1%. There is a trend towards a positive correlation between electrocardiographic alterations and the grade of the retinal arteriolar changes, between cardiac enlargement and the grade of the retinal arteriolar changes, and between electrocardiographic alterations and the degree of cardiac enlargement. This correlation was not. of high statistical significance. The irregular distribution of the vascular processes and the lack of strict parallelism between the systemic and central retinal artery blood pressure are stressed.