A STUDY ON THE LIPID PROFILE OF HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS IN MANGALORE?

Background and objectives: Hypertension and abnormalities of lipid profile often co-exist. Several well conducted epidemiological studies have demonstrated that cholesterol levels are significantly higher in hypertensive patients than in age, sex and body mass index matched normotensive patients. Hence this study is undertaken to study the demographic profile of hypertensive patient (sex, age group) & Comparison of lipid levels between hypertensive and healthy subjects. Methodology: Present study was conducted in Kasturba Medical College and Hospital, Mangalore on 50 hypertensives and 50 normal subjects aged (30-80 yrs.). Lipid profile was estimated for Total cholesterol (CHOD-PAP Method), HDL Cholesterol (second-generation enzymatic colorimetric method), Triglycerides (GPO-PAD method), LDL-C-[Total cholesterol ? (HDL-C+VLDL-C) &VLDL-Cholesterol (VLDL ?C). Z ? MANN WHITNEY TEST was used for statistical analysis. Results: All the lipid fractions TC, TGL, LDL-C, VLDL, TC/HDL-C ratio were higher in the hypertensive patients than those in the healthy controls. The study included 50 cases of essential hypertension of which 16 (32%) were females and 34 (68%) were males between the age groups of 30 ? 80 years. In the present study no significant difference was found in the different age groups and no difference was seen between males and females too. Interpretation and conclusion: In the present study group age range was from 30-80 years and mean age was 55 years. Higher numbers of patients of hypertension were seen between age group 50-60 years contributing to 36% of the cases studied. This study was focused only on comparison of lipid profile. The other factors like type of diet, obesity, diabetes, smoking, alcohol consumption, age, sex & ischaemic heart disease may be contributed to the observed results.