CLINICAL PROFILE OF HYPERTENSION IN ELDERLY- IN A RURAL TEACHING INSTITUTE OF SUB-HIMALAYAN REGION

Abhimanyu Patial, Kailash Nath Sharma*, Dhiraj Kapoor, Varan Deep Dogra and Tarun Sharma

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Hypertension causes over 7 million premature deaths per year and contributes to 4.5% of the total disease burden worldwide.[4] Notably, older adults account for the bulk of hypertension-related morbidity and mortality – due largely to dramatically greater prevalence among the elderly. Despite the well-documented pervasiveness of late-life hypertension among older adults, many challenges remain. In the phase of epidemiological transition, cardiovascular disease especially hypertension is emerging as a major health problem in elderly population. The present study was aimed to study profile of elderly hypertensive patients attending the outpatient department (OPD) of Dr RPGMC Kangra at Tanda. Results: 59% patients aged between 61-70 years followed by 34% patients in 71-80 years, and 6% patients in 81-90 years. Male to female ratio in our study was 1.08:1. Nineteen smokers had stage 2 hypertension. These 19 patients had fasting blood glucose >126 mg/dl and HbA1c >6.5%. 25% of the patients hypercholesterolemia, 22% patients had high triglycerides, and 25% patients had high LDL. USG (KUB) showed bilateral renal disease in 11% patients. Stroke was seen in 12% of the patients. Echo findings showed RWMA in 10% patients and LVH in 18% patients. 21% patients had hypertensive showed retinopathy. Conclusion: Hypertension is common in elderly population with no gender predilection. Smoking, diabetes, dyslipidaemia, overweight and alcohol consumption were found to be risk factors for stage 2 hypertension in elderly population. Elderly hypertensives were found to be prone to risk of complications such as stroke, LVH, retinopathy and nephropathy.

Keywords: Elderly, hypertension, complications.