The study was renewed in 1996 to continue to follow the original cohort to examine the interaction of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and mortality risk in the subgroup of patients with coronary heart disease, to investigate further the impact of left ventricular geometry on survival, and to define the prognostic significance of obesity. Also to enroll a new clinical cohort of 5,600 patients, approximately equally divided between Blacks and whites, from Louisiana State University (LSU) Medical Center. The survival patterns of these groups are compared directly, and the contribution of LVH to the Black:white differential estimated. The new cohort serves as a validation sample for the hypotheses derived from the original cohort.