The prevalence of resistant and undercontrolled hypertension among patients of a Hypertension Outpatient Clinic

Introduction. Around 57% of Hungarian hypertensive patients did not reach the goal blood pressure. According to an ESH Newsletter published in 2011, the prevalence of resistant hypertension is 2.9–43%. Objective. Analysing only the therapy of hypertensive patients of the Hypertension Outpatient Clinic of the University of Szeged, the authors wanted to answer following main questions: How many patients were therapeutically resistant according to the definition of resistant hypertension? How many patients were taking 3 or more antihypertensive drugs? How many of these patients reached target SBP values? How many drugs were usually used in combination therapy? Material and methods. Data were retrospectively collected from 01/01/2011 to 31/08/2011 from the electronic files of the hypertensive patients. Altogether 310 patients’ data were analysed, of all cases only one visit was taken into account. For those patients who visited the Clinic more than once during this period, only the first visit was considered. Means of two measurements were calculated. The goal SBP was 140 mmHg. Results. In this population, 234/310 (76%) patients had resistant hypertension according to the definition (158 ± 17/97 ± 8 mmHg). Three or more antihypertensive drugs were taken by 257/310 (83%) patients (136 ± 20 mmHg) and 134 of them (52% of 257 patients) reached the therapeutic goal. A fourfold combination of antihypertensive agents was the most frequent in this population. Conclusion. It is advised to use multiple drug combinations and it is recommended to spend enough time but not longer than necessary to find the most effective combination in every case.