Studies on body surface mapping: Standardization of normal values and application for diagnosis of ventricular hypertrophy@@@健常値の基準化と心肥大の診断への応用

Clinical significance of body surface mapping (mapping) for estimating the ventricular hypertrophy was reviewed mainly based on the reports from the Department of Laboratory Medicine, Okayama University Medical School. First, the normal pattern of the maps was determined on 296 normal subjects. Then, the maps of the patients with aortic regurgitation, essential hypertension and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy were compared with each other and with the normal maps. The results showed that the maps are useful for diagnosis of the left ventricular hypertrophy, but failed to elicite the pathophysiological base of the hypertrophy. However, for the right ventricular hypertrophy, mapping was shown to be useful for estimating the right ventricular systolic pressure, i.e., systolic pressure of the pulmonary artery. Therefore, mapping is useful for diagnosis of ventricular hypertrophy, especially for estimating the right ventricular overloading.