Arterial hypertension with stroke risk: clinical features, circadian blood pressure profiles, angiotensin II antagonist treatment

Abstract

Aim. To investigate arterial hypertension (AH) clinical features in patients who suffered stroke (S) in previous 12 months. Material and methods. Prevalence of various risk factors (RF), target organ damage and associated pathology, was compared in two groups: Group I – 500 S-free AH patients, mean age 64.8±6.2 years; Group II - 467 AH patients with S, mean age 66.2±4.3 years. 24-hour blood pressure monitoring, brachiocephalic artery duplex scanning, and echocardiography were preformed in all participants. Results. In pre-S period, a syndrome of “poor prognosis” could be identified, that included some clinical and instrumental symptoms of aggressive RF influence and cardiovascular remodeling. In AH patients with high S risk, circadian BP profiles were disturbed, with increased prevalence of non-dippers, over-dippers, and night-peakers. Conclusion. Long-term antihypertensive therapy with eprosartan in AH patients with or without S, demonstrated multiple beneficial effects: target BP level achievement, and circadian BP profile normalization.

Keywords

• arterial hypertension
• stroke
• 24-hour blood pressure monitoring
• eprosartan