RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: Poor controlled hypertension is associated with development of target organ damage and theassessment of target organ damage is important in the evaluation of all hypertensive patients as itprovides important information on the severity of the hypertension, the cardiovascular risk and guidemanagement of individual patient.GOAL: The aim of this study to determine frequency of target organ damage among hypertensiveoutpatients at district hospitals in Ulaanbaatar.MATERIAL AND METHODS:This was a cross-sectional hospital based study. Total 150 hypertensive outpatients aged 40-70years were consecutively recruited into the study at district hospitals in Ulaanbaatar. Standardizedquestionnaires were used to collect socio-demographic characteristics and data about diseasehistory that shows hypertensive complication. Target organ damage was assessed by physicalexamination, urine test, serum total cholesterol test, eye fundoscopy and ECG.RESULTS:Among study participants, 130 (86.7%) patients had at least one of the four hypertensive targetorgan damage studied. The most affected organ was the eye presenting as retinopathy observedin 109 (72.7%), followed by left ventricular hypertrophy 107 (71.3%), stroke 20 (13.3%), andproteinuria in 17 (11.3%) patients. Only 42 (28%) had controlled blood pressure, 108 (72%) of thestudy participants had uncontrolled blood pressure.CONCLUSION:This study showed a high frequency of target organ damage among hypertensive patients attendingmedical outpatient clinic. These findings illustrate the burden of uncontrolled hypertension in oursetting.