Left Ventricular Dilatation and the Risk of Congestive Heart Failure in People without Myocardial Infarction

An increase in left ventricular internal dimension is a risk factor for congestive heart failure in men and women who have not had a myocardial infarction. Knowledge of the left ventricular dimension improves predictions of the risk of congestive heart failure made on the basis of traditional risk factors, perhaps by aiding in the identification of subjects with subclinical left ventricular dysfunction.