Left ventricular hypertrophy as a target of treatment in patients with hypertension.

It is not easy to define the mechanism of hypertrophy in he average blood pressure (BP) level has certainly decreased in Japan since 1960,1 but the prevalence of hypertension (HT) may be on the rise in the next 2–3 decades. When considering national healthcare costs, the treatment of HT and prevention of related diseases is crucial. The target of treatment is to lower BP in patients with HT, primarily in order to avoid cardiovascular events. Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is a compensatory reaction to HT that causes myocardial ischemia and diastolic dysfunction, consequent heart failure. There is a report of the predictive power of LVH asT