Effect of Hypertension on Vascular Age

ABSTRACT

Background: Cardiovascular disease which is an outcome measure have several conventional risk factors which include older age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, alcohol intake, smoking, decreased physical activity, abdominal obesity, high risk diet and psychosocial stress. Stiffening of large arteries known as arterial stiffness (arteriosclerosis) has been shown to be an important risk marker for future cardiovascular events and mortality beyond well-known cardiovascular risk factors. Aim of study To determine the effect of Hypertension on arterial stiffness and so the cardiovascular disease. Therefore in this study, we attempted to find the effect of hypertension on vascular stiffness. Material and methods: A cross sectional study was conducted at Department of Medicine, Dhiraj Hospital affiliated with SBKS MI & RC Sumandeep Vidyapeeth University to measure and analyse the vascular age in hypertensive patients. Total of 90 hypertensive patients were enrolled for the study after taking informed written consent. Vascular age is calculated in all patients using MOBILO-OGRAPH, after taking into consideration the various vascular parameters. Results: Vascular aging become faster in older patients (>60 years) than in younger patients (p=0.011). Also Male hypertensives had worse vessels compared to their female counterpart (p=0.001). Also the presence of dyslipidaemia had highly significant effect on vascular age of hypertensive patients (p<0.001). We had also seen that greater the duration of hypertension, more the effect on arterial stiffness. Conclusion: Though prediction of exact cardiovascular risk is not possible by measuring vascular age of the hypertensive patients but such information is very useful for mass sensitization and education.