Left ventricular mass is an important determinant of diagnosis and prognosis in patients with heart disease (cardiovascular morbidity and mortality) in specific for determination of severity and type of cardiac hypertrophy.

The parameters involved are summarised below:

LVEDD: Left ventricular end-diastolic dimension;
IVSd: Interventricular septal thickness at end-diastole;
PWd: Posterior wall thickness at end-diastole;
LVMI: Left ventricular mass index;
RWT: Relative wall thickness;
BSA: Body surface area using the Mosteller formula.

The formulas used are the following:

LV Mass = 0.8 x (1.04 x (((LVEDD + IVSd +PWd)3 - LVEDD3))) + 0.6
LVMI (LV Mass Indexed to Body Surface Area) = LV Mass / BSA
RWT (Relative Wall Thickness) = 2 x PWd / LVEDD

For BSA, Mosteller’s formula is employed: BSA = (((Height in cm) x (Weight in kg))/ 3600)½

Left ventricular mass (LVM) can be directly determined using cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and is known to increase in proportion to overall body size and differs by gender:

Individuals with LV hypertrophy were found to be at 2.7 times greater risk for cardiac events, such as myocardial infarction or coronary heart disease death, (over 15 years) than individuals without LV hypertrophy.