Cardiovascular Risk Profiles and Target Organ Damage in Adult Patients with Chronic Essential Hypertension

International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences | Vol. 12, No. 10, October 2022 | pp. 73–80

DOI: 10.46882/2022/IJMMS/120073

Original Research Article

Cardiovascular Risk Profiles and Target Organ Damage in Adult Patients with Chronic Essential Hypertension

Chidi O. Okafor¹, Amina J. Hassan², Samuel K. Appiah¹*

¹Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Ituku-Ozalla, Enugu, Nigeria.

²Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana.

Abstract:

Uncontrolled essential hypertension causes progressive systemic vascular modifications, resulting in target organ damage (TOD). This prospective cross-sectional study evaluated cardiovascular risk profiles and the prevalence of specific TOD markers in adult patients managed for chronic essential hypertension. We evaluated 200 hypertensive patients aged 35 to 65 years. Risk profiling involved serum lipid screening, fasting plasma glucose measurements, and microalbuminuria assays. TOD was confirmed via electrocardiographic and echocardiographic evaluations for Left Ventricular Hypertrophy (LVH), and fundoscopy for hypertensive retinopathy. The mean blood pressure of the cohort was 154.6 ± 12.8 / 96.4 ± 8.5 mmHg. The overall prevalence of at least one TOD indicator was 54.5% (109/200). Echocardiographic LVH was the most common structural damage marker, identified in 38.0% of the participants, followed by microalbuminuria (28.5%) and hypertensive retinopathy (22.0%). Dyslipidemia was highly prevalent, characterized by elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (mean = 3.82 ± 0.65 mmol/L). Logistic regression modeling showed that a duration of hypertension > 5 years (OR = 3.2, 95% CI = 1.6–6.4, p < 0.01), poor blood pressure control (OR = 2.8, p < 0.05), and concurrent metabolic syndrome (OR = 3.6, p < 0.001) were strongly associated with advanced TOD. Chronic essential hypertension in this population is associated with a high burden of target organ damage, particularly structural cardiac remodeling. Early, aggressive multi-drug therapeutic interventions and routine screening for microalbuminuria are necessary to lower cardiovascular event risks.

Keywords: Essential Hypertension, Cardiovascular Risk, Left Ventricular Hypertrophy, Microalbuminuria, Retinneropathy, Target Organ Damage

Manuscript Timeline: Received: July 12, 2022; Revised: August 20, 2022; Accepted: September 11, 2022; Published: October 14, 2022.

Citation: Okafor CO, Hassan AJ, Appiah SK. Cardiovascular Risk Profiles and Target Organ Damage in Adult Patients with Chronic Essential Hypertension. International Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences, 2022, 12(10): 73–80. DOI: 10.46882/2022/IJMMS/120073

Subscribe to read the full article: https://internationalscholarsjournals.org/subscribe-to-read