Screening of Diastolic Dysfunction With Impedance Cardiography in Hypertensive Patients

Arterial hypertension (AHT) is responsible for important morbidity and mortality. The cardiac repercussion of AHT is usually assessed by electrocardiography and echocardiography, time-consuming, technically demanding examinations that require experienced operators, which limits their use for screening diastolic dysfunction. Alternative tools for the screening of diastolic function in hypertensive patients are needed. Impedance cardiography (IC) is presently used in the study of AHT and in the optimization of antihypertensive therapy. It seems an attractive and economical option to change the clinical approach for screening; however, its validation in well-defined populations is required to sustain its use in clinical practice. The IMPEDDANS study aims to validate IC for screening left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in outclinic patients with AHT, using functional echocardiography as the clinical standard. Descriptive and analytical study with analysis of the agreement between the diagnosis of diastolic dysfunction and its degree, as well as the parameters obtained by impedance cardiography and echocardiography in patients with AHT.