The Effect of Blood Pressure Risk Factors (Packed Cell Volume and Body Mass Index) on the Incidence of Hypertension

Hypertension is a worldwide epidemic in many countries, 50 % of the population greater than 60 years of age has hypertension. Hypertension is defined as a repeatedly elevated blood pressure exceeding 140/90 mmHg. The prevalence of hypertension is steadily increasing, even with the expanded use of antihypertensive medications. It is widely recognized that hypertension is associated with increased cardiovascular and all-cause mortality independently of other risk factors. In several reports, packed cell volume (PCV) and body mass index (BMI) have been identified as risk factors that significantly contribute to blood pressure increase. Therefore, there is necessity to investigate the correlation between PCV and BMI in hypertensive and normotensive subjects. In this study, a total of 100 subjects of age between 20 and 70 years were examined, 50 subjects (25 male and 25 female) were hypertensive and 50 subjects (25 male and 25 female) were normotensive. In all subjects, blood pressure, BMI and PCV were measured. There was a positive correlation between BMI and PCV in hypertensive subjects (male and female). This relation was strongly significant linear positive in males, where the r = 0.921 (ANOVA *P = 0.01) and also in females, where r = 0.952 (ANOVA *P = 0.01). Unlike in normotensive subjects the correlation was non-significant between BMI and PCV in males, where, r = 0.026 and in females, where r = 0.103.