Epidemiological Study of Hypertensive Patients in Relation to Clinical Phenotyping as Per Unani Concept

Background A century old Unani system has been existing in the world for the cure of human illnesses. The science behind this system has been poorly understood. Modern technology has now been starting to infiltrate into this system only recently. Hence keeping the Unani principles in mind we have attempted to present the epidemiological parameters of hypertensive patients and their segregation for treatment modalities. Methods Hypertensive patients defined by high blood pressure diagnosis were selected for this study along with equal number of controls. The Unani system of Medicine recognizes mainly four categories of classification of patients such as Damvi (Sanguine), Balghami (Phlegmatic), Safravi (Bilious) and Saudavi (Melancholic). The Unani clinicians selected thehypertensive cases which had the dominant phenotype of Damvi category. A specially designed case record form as per the Unani classical text was designed for assessment of humours and the information obtained were recorded from healthy volunteers as well as patients. Results Hypertension (HT) is measure by Increase in blood pressure, and scientific literature indicates that nitric oxide (NO) plays a major role in regulating blood pressure and glucose levels, hence we have genotyped the eNOS gene polymorphism (by PCR-RFLP) and we found heterozygous genotype as dominant compared to controls. We also determined the biochemical parameters like plasma glucose levels (fasting and postprandial), total cholesterol, triglycerides, liver function tests and renal function tests were also analyzed by using an Erba auto analyzer and found increase in the levels of these parameters. Conclusion Based on the epidemiological parameters the difference between the genotypes in the heterozygous category of the HT patients and controls was 21 % and 13 % respectively, which is a highly significant difference. This is the first step in categorizing the Damvi (Sanguine) patients based on Unani principles, and these were selected for undergoing Unani treatment, which is being communicated separately.