What is gross concentric left ventricualr hypertrophy?
Left ventricular hypertrophy is an enlargement of the hearts’ muscular wall of the left ventricle (heart’s main pumping chamber). Now sometimes this is normal and physiological. This commonly happens in pregnancy due to the increased demand on the heart and athletes have this too. I run long distances and I sometimes have LVH which has occurred in a normal physiological response to cardiovascular conditioning, it basically enables the heart to pump more effectively. This type of hypertrophy is reversible and is not usually of any consequence. Some people have hypertrophy as a result of preload (increased volume load) on the heart, if this is prolonged, this can result in ventricular failure. Certain heart conditions such as cardiomyopathies, high BP, valve problems and CAD can cause this. Now, with prolonged enlargement, such as with hypertension etc, the diameter of the actual ventricular chamber itself does not change but the muscle wall thickness increases, this is called concentric
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