Study of clinical profile of patients with essential hypertension at a tertiary hospital.

Background: Hypertensive patients have several common and other comorbidities that can affect cardiovascular risk and treatment strategies. Present study was aimed to study clinical profile of patients with essential hypertension at a tertiary hospital. Material and Methods: Present study was prospective, comparative study, conducted in cases (patients of age between 18 and 75 years, diagnosed with hypertension) & controls (same age and sex, normotensive subjects). Results: In our study, 40 cases & 40 subjects were studied. Age & gender of cases & controls were comparable, no significant difference was noted (p > 0.05). In present study, hypertension was more common in BMI = 25 kg/m², patients with Diabetes, family history of hypertension, smoking habit, alcohol use, habits of adding extra salt while eating food, eating foods with high salt content, eating junk food, had nil to moderate Physical activity, had high & very high perceived stress levels and there was significant statistical difference noted (p value < 0.001). There was also a statistically significant difference noted in serum cholesterol (193 ± 14.768 vs 183.15 ± 13.275, p value 0.0024) & average serum sodium (140.43 ± 4.031 vs 138.28 ± 2.837, p value 0.007) among cases & controls. Conclusion: Healthy lifestyle choices can prevent or delay the onset of high BP and can reduce cardiovascular risk. Long term reduction in salt intake would significantly reduce the prevalence of hypertension and thereby decrease associated morbidity and mortality due to cardiovascular disease and stroke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]