Design and Rationale of the National Observational Multicentric Tunisian Registry of Hypertension: Protocol for Evaluating Hypertensive Patient Care in Clinical Practice.

BACKGROUND: This study was designed to evaluate the care of hypertensive patients in daily clinical practice in public and private centers in all Tunisian regions. OBJECTIVE: This study will provide us an overview of hypertension (HTN) management in Tunisia and the degree of adherence of practitioners to international recommendations. METHODS: This is a national observational cross-sectional multicenter study that will include patients older than 18 years with HTN for a duration of 4 weeks, managed in the public sector from primary and secondary care centers as well as patients managed in the private sector. Every participating patient signed a consent form. The study will exclude patients undergoing dialysis. The parameters that will be evaluated are demographic and anthropometric data, lifestyle habits, blood pressure levels, lipid profiles, treatment, and adherence to treatment. The data are collected via the web interface in the Dacima Clinical Suite. RESULTS: The study began on April 15, 2019 and ended on May 15, 2019. During this period, we included 25,890 patients with HTN. Data collection involved 321 investigators from 24 Tunisian districts. The investigators were doctors working in the private and public sectors. CONCLUSIONS: Observational studies are extremely useful in improving the management of HTN in developing countries. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04013503; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04013503. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/21878.

Epidemiologic features and management of hypertension in Tunisia, the results from the Hypertension National Registry (NaTuRe HTN).

BACKGROUND: Hypertension is the leading cause of morbi-mortality in our country. Thus, we conducted this national survey on hypertension to analyze the profile of the Tunisian hypertensive patient and to assess the level of blood pressure control. METHODS: Nature HTN is an observational multicentric survey, including hypertensive individuals and consulting their doctors during the period of the study. Blood pressure measurements were conducted during consultation, using a standardized auscultatory or oscillometric sphygmomanometer after at least 15 min of rest. The diagnosis of new hypertension is based on the 2018 ESC/ESH criteria. The primary endpoint of our study was uncontrolled hypertension defined by a systolic blood pressure ≥ 140 mmHg and/or diastolic blood pressure ≥ 90 mmHg. RESULTS: Three hundred twenty-one investigators participated in the study. We enrolled 25,890 patients with a female predominance (Sex ratio, 1.21) and an average age of 64.4 ± 12.2 years. Most individuals were treated in the public sector (74%), 39.4% of patients were diabetic, 25.8% were obese, 44.6% were overweight and 14% were smokers. Hypertension was controlled in 51.7% of cases if we consider 140/90 as a BP target, and only in 18.6% if we consider 130/80 as a target. The independent predictors of uncontrolled blood pressure were male sex (OR = 1.09, 95%CI [1.02-1.16]), age > 65 year-old (OR = 1.07, 95% CI[1.01-1.13], diabetes (OR = 1.18, 95% CI [1.11-1.25], Smoking (OR = 1.15, 95% CI [1.05-1.25]), Obesity (OR = 1.14, 95% CI[1.07-1.21]), management in public sector (OR = 1.25, 95% CI [1.16-1.34]), and Heart rate > 80 bpm (OR = 1.59, 95% CI [1.48-1.71]). Contrarily, high educational level (OR = 0.9, 95% CI [0.84-0.97], absence of history of coronary disease (OR = 0.86, 95% CI [0.8-0.93]), salt restriction (OR = 0.48, 95% CI [0.45-0.51]), drug compliance (OR = 0.57, 95% CI[0.52-0.61]), and regular physical activity (OR = 0.77, 95% CI[0.71-0.84]) are strong predictors of blood pressure control. CONCLUSION: NaTuRe HTN showed that blood pressure control was reached in more than half of the Tunisian people. The control remains low in patients with high cardiovascular profiles and in those treated in the public sector. A national health program based on therapeutic education, regular control and continuous support to the public institutions is needed to decrease the burden of hypertension incidence rate.

Giant Left Atrial Myxoma with Mitral Valve Obstruction.

Cardiac myxomas are the most common primary intracardiac tumors in adults. Although benign from a histopathological point of view, they can be life-threatening for the patient. We present a case of an unusually giant left atrial myxoma causing mitral valve obstruction and pulmonary hypertension successfully treated with surgical resection. Our patient was a 54-year-old woman who presented to our emergency complaining of progressive dyspnea of about 1 month duration. On cardiovascular examination, we found crackling rales at both lung bases and a diastolic murmur in the mitral focus. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a giant mass in the left atrium connected to the interatrial septum and extended into the left ventricle during diastole which caused obstruction of the left ventricular inflow tract and a pulmonary hypertension. The patient underwent a median sternotomy with the removal of left atrial mass and patch closure of the interatrial septum. Histopathological examination confirmed the diagnosis of myxoma. One week later, the patient was discharged without any complications. Giant left atrial myxoma although a benign mass, can induce dramatic symptoms and be life-threatening. In case of suspicion, it must be diagnosed early by transthoracic echocardiography and urgently managed by surgical removal.

A large cardiac hydatid cyst in the interventricular septum: A case report.

Isolated cardiac location is an uncommon presentation of echinococcosis (0.5-2%), and involvement of the interventricular septum is even rarer. It may lead to various complications because of rupture and embolization. We report the case of a 26 - year- old man who was diagnosed to have a large inter-ventricular hydatid cyst complicated by both cerebral and coronary embolism. Presentation, management and follow-up of the patient is discussed. This case is of particular interest because of the rarity of septal localization of a hydatid cyst, and the conflict between the severity of the complications that occurred and the absence of correlated symptoms.