Frequency of Isolated Systolic Hypertension in Elderly Hypertensives

Aim: To study frequency of isolated systolic hypertension in elderly hypertensive. Design: Descriptive study. Setting: Department of medicine, POF Hospital Wah Cantt Duration of study: For 3 month's period i.e. from 24th December 2009 to 24th March 2010. Method: Total 148 cases, both male and female, of more than 50 yrs age were taken. Blood pressure of all these subjects were taken by standard sphygmomanometer on presentation and after 02 weeks while patient was lying comfortably for at least five minutes. Mean of two readings was taken as final blood pressure. These hypertensive patients of more than 50 years were enrolled from both, inpatients as well as out-patient department of POF Hospital Wah Cantt. A specially designed proforma was used to collect data by nonrandom probability sampling. Results: Among the 148 cases, 24(16.2%) were found to have isolated systolic hypertension, 20(13.5%) were falling in the range of borderline isolated systolic hypertension, systolic diastolic hypertension was seen in 82(55.4%) of cases, and 8(5.4%) were found to have diastolic hypertension. Conclusion: Frequency of isolated systolic hypertension was observed to be increasing in elder age group. As the frequency of systolic hypertension increases in elderly, the risk of stroke, cardiovascular diseases and ischemic heart disease also increases. Among blood pressure indices, systolic blood pressure remains main predictor of cardiovascular mortality, myocardial infarction, left ventricular hypertrophy and renal dysfunction. Cardiovascular risk increases progressively doubling for every 20/10 mm of Hg rise in blood pressure. Though the incidence is falling in West but is rising in Asia.