Clinico-epidemiological profile and risk factors of hypertensive crisis among patients attended at a tertiary care hospital in Somalia

Hypertensive crisis (HC) is a life-threatening clinical condition in which an abrupt rise in arterial blood pressure can lead to acute damage to vital organs. The main objective of our study is to determine the epidemiological profile, clinical characteristics, and risk factors of hypertensive crisis patients in Somalia. This study was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted on HC patients attended at Mogadishu Somali Turkish Training and Research Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, from November 2020 to April 2021. A total of 6239 patients were screened during the study period. The prevalence of HC was 2.1% (128/6239). Of them, 76 (59.4%) were males. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 56.5 (± 16.9) years (range: 24-98 years). 54.7% (70/128) met the criteria for a hypertensive emergency, while 45.3% (58/128) met the criteria of hypertensive urgency. Most patients (55.5%) took a single antihypertensive medicine, with calcium channel blockers being the most frequently used (57.8%). Headache and palpitation were the most often reported symptoms upon admission (39.1% and 25%). The most often prescribed antihypertensive drugs for the initial therapy included Intravenous furosemide (35.2%), Sublingual captopril (25.8%), intravenous nitroglycerin (23.4%), and intravenous labetalol (20%). Among the forms or patterns of end-organ damage of HE, we most frequently observed acute heart failure (45.7%), acute pulmonary edema (29.9%), and acute renal injury (25.7%). Infrequent medical checkups, poor compliance with medications, poor compliance with exercise, positive family history of hypertension, and being male gender were significant predictors of HC, AOR = 20.312; p < 0.000, AOR = 7.021; p < 0.008, AOR = 6.158; p < 0.017, AOR = 3.545; p < 0.032, and AOR = 2.144; p = 0.001, respectively. In Somalia, the hypertensive crisis is common in this clinic population. Infrequent medical checkups, poor compliance with medications and exercise, positive family history of hypertension, and being male gender were significant predictors of HC.