Prevalence, Biochemical and Clinical Characteristics of Resistant Hypertension

The objectives of the present study were to evaluate the prevalence of resistant hypertension (RH) in primary care setting and to analyse its biochemical and clinical characteristics. After 3 months of treatment and evaluation, 721 (14.01%) of 5,146 patients with hypertension did not reach target office blood pressure of [ 140/90 mmHg. After exclusion of white-coat effect with ambulatory blood pressure, of secondary and pseudo- resistant hypertension, prevalence of RH was 6.74%. Lifestyle factors associated with RH were physical inactivity, obesity, high salt intake, smoking and excessive alcohol ingestion. Compared to controlled hypertension, RH patients presented higher incidence of family history of cardiovascular disease (38.90% vs 25.94%), diabetes mellitus (34.87% vs 19.01%), impaired fasting glucose (21.91% vs 19.07%), target organ damage (29.1% vs 15.95%), and cardiovascular disease (27.09% vs 17.06%). Dyslipidaemia (52.90% vs 42.03%), fasting plasma glucose (116.10 38.9 vs 107.80 37.2), HbA1c (6.41 1.42 vs 5.96 0.94), serum creatinine (1.09 0.27 vs 1.03 0.24) and microalbuminuria (21.90% vs 10.95%) were significantly higher in RH. Predictors of RH, determined by a multivariate logistic regression analysis were left ventricular hypertrophy (OD 2.14, 95% CI 1.32-3.69), renal impairment expressed as eGFR [ 60 ml/min/1.73m2 (OD 1.62, 95% CI 1.21-2.21) and the presence of cardiovascular disease (OD 1.48, 95% CI 1.02-2.16).