Related topics: diabetes , blood pressure , high blood pressure
Hypertension
hideHypertension, also referred to as high blood pressure, HTN or HPN, is a medical condition in which the blood pressure is chronically elevated. In current usage, the word "hypertension" without a qualifier normally refers to systemic, arterial hypertension.
Hypertension can be classified as either essential (primary) or secondary. Essential hypertension indicates that no specific medical cause can be found to explain a patient's condition. About 90-95% of hypertension is essential hypertension. Secondary hypertension indicates that the high blood pressure is a result of (i.e., secondary to) another condition, such as kidney disease or tumours (adrenal adenoma or pheochromocytoma).
Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for strokes, heart attacks, heart failure and arterial aneurysm, and is a leading cause of chronic renal failure. Even moderate elevation of arterial blood pressure leads to shortened life expectancy. At severely high pressures, defined as mean arterial pressures 50% or more above average, a person can expect to live no more than a few years unless appropriately treated. Beginning at a systolic pressure (which is peak pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the end of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are contracting) of 115 mmHg and diastolic pressure (which is minimum pressure in the arteries, which occurs near the beginning of the cardiac cycle when the ventricles are filled with blood) of 75 mmHg (commonly written as 115/75 mmHg), cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk doubles for each increment of 20/10 mmHg.
For more information about Hypertension, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with hypertension
High-blood-pressure treatment for the over-80s too aggressive, warns expert
Dec 23, 2009 |
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People over 80 years are being treated too aggressively for high blood pressure, warns an expert in an editorial in BMJ Clinical Evidence this week.
Book demystifies psychiatry for the general public
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 14, 2009 |
4.7 / 5 (3) |
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Psychiatric disorders are underdiagnosed, poorly treated and highly stigmatized, according to psychiatrists Charles F. Zorumski, M.D., and Eugene H. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D. So these Washington University physicians ...
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Study shows a key protein helps control blood pressure
Dec 23, 2009 |
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University of Iowa researchers have shown that a protein channel helps nerve sensors in blood vessels keep blood pressure in check. Without the protein channel, known as ASIC2, the sensors are unable to send the brain the ...
Genetic study clarifies African and African-American ancestry
Dec 21, 2009 |
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People who identify as African-American may be as little as 1 percent West African or as much as 99 percent, just one finding of a large-scale, genome-wide study of African and African-American ancestry released ...
Are patients losing sleep over blood pressure monitors?
Dec 17, 2009 |
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A widely used test for measuring nighttime blood pressure may interfere with patients' sleep, thus affecting the results of the test, reports a study in an upcoming issue of Clinical Journal of the American Society of Ne ...
Breathlessness eased in patients with rare, often fatal disease
Dec 17, 2009 |
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Patients with a rare, deadly disease that mostly affects young women felt a dramatic reduction in breathlessness using an approved drug, according to study results published online today in The Journal of Heart and Lung Tr ...
Arizona State and Mayo Clinic partner to combat metabolic syndrome
Dec 17, 2009 |
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Arizona State University and Mayo Clinic in Arizona are joining forces in a partnership to investigate metabolic syndrome - a cluster of high-risk medical factors that include increased blood pressure, elevated insulin levels, ...
Enzyme may create new approach to hypertension therapy
Dec 17, 2009 |
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New research from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has found that an alternative therapy may be possible for treating some types of hypertension using an enzyme called ACE2.
New Web tool may help predict risk of second stroke
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Dec 16, 2009 |
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Scientists have developed a new web-based tool that may better predict whether a person will suffer a second stroke within 90 days of a first stroke, according to research published in the December 16, 2009, online issue ...
Strict blood sugar control in some diabetics does not lower heart attack, stroke risk
Dec 14, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Strictly controlling blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetics with coexisting health problems such as heart disease and hypertension does not lower their risk of a heart attack or stroke, according to a UC ...
26 operations, 13 kidneys: hope to few with little
Dec 14, 2009 |
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(AP) -- Twenty-six operations put healthy kidneys into 13 desperately ill people: Doctors in the nation's capital just performed a record-setting kidney swap, part of a pioneering effort to expand transplants ...
Clinical trial advances new approach to re-sensitizing breast cancer
Dec 13, 2009 |
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A new drug cocktail might be the right mix to fight breast cancer after it becomes resistant to standard therapy. Details of a new study supporting this approach suggest it's possible to re-sensitize tumors thus allowing ...
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