HYPERTENSIVE EMERGENCY AND CARDIAC TARGET ORGAN DAMAGE AT TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL HYDERABAD

OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency of hypertensive emergency and cardiac target organ damage at tertiary care hospital Hyderabad. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This descriptive case series of one year was conducted from 01 January 2015 to 31 December 2015 in the department of cardiology at tertiary care hospital Hyderabad. The inclusion criteria of the study were patients ≥30 years of age, either gender with systolic blood pressure of ≥180mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure of ≥ 110 mm Hg have evidence of target organ damage, either clinically or investigation (imaging i.e. on ECG and ECHO) findings. The frequency and percentages were computed and the mean ±SD was also calculated. RESULTS: During one year study period total fifty patients were detected as hypertensive emergency. The mean age ±SD for whole population was 58.98±7.84 while the mean ±SD for systolic and diastolic blood pressure for whole population was 210 ± 10 mm Hg and 120 ± 8 mmHg respectively. Majority of the patients belonged to urban population (65%) and were male population 35 (70%), the common identified symptoms were neurological deficit 20 (40%), headache 40 (80%) and shortness of breath 15 (30%). The known hypertensive, diabetic, smokers, obese and dyslipidemic were 30 (60%), 35 (70%), 30 (60%), 28 (36%) and 25 (50%). On chest X-ray cardiomegaly was identified in 15 (30%), common electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings were ST/T wave changes 20 (40%), left ventricular hypotrophy 15(30%) and regional wall motion abnormality 13 (26%). The cardiac target organ damage detected were acute myocardial infarction (16%), left ventricular failure (16%) and acute MI and LVF (16%) while the mortality was observed in 8(16%) patients respectively. CONCLUSION: Majority of subjects presented with hypertensive emergency had fifth and sixth decades of age with male gender and known hypertensive population predominance. Keywords: Hypertensive emergency, Target organ damage, Hypertension