Antihypertensive therapy in men and women in real clinical practice according to the National register

Abstract

Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) in the world, including Russia. Current Guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension do not include different theatment strategies for men and women. Gender and age analysis of antihypertensive treatmen in men and women could reveal unreasonable and non - optimal treatment in each group. The purpose of this study was to identify the gender features of antihypertensive therapy used by primary care physicians in patients with hypertension. Materials and methods. The study is based on the Arterial Hypertension Registry established in 2012. The methodology of it has been described previously [1]. Medical data from outpatient cards were entered by doctors of 53 city primary care medical centers and 5 cardiology clinics from 22 regions of the Russian Federation. The study included the data of 33 564 patients from 18 years and older with diagnosis of arterial hypertension. Gender, age, height, body weight, smoking status, office blood pressure (BP), laboratory and instrumental examination methods, diagnosed cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and comorbidities in accordance with the International Classification of Diseases of the 10th revision [ICD-10], as well as the treatment (antihypertensive and lipid - lowering therapy) were listed. Results and conclusion. Gender differences in the prescription antihypertensive therapy (AHT) in men and women with hypertension were revealed. Apparently, one of the reasons for these differences is the earlier and more frequent development of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular complications of hypertension in men than in women. Beta - blockers (BB) and angiotensin - converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) are more often prescribed to men with hypertension and with coronary artery disease (CAD), myocardial infarction (MI) and chronic heart failure (CHF). Women with hypertension are more often prescribed angiotensin receptor blockers (ARB), thiazide and thiazide - like diuretics. The study also showed non - optimal treatment of patients with hypertension. Insufficient prescription of medication which could improve the prognosis of the disease (ACE inhibitors /ARB, BB, mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist) have been identified in patients with hypertension and CAD, MI, CHF. It is noteworthy that in the some outpatient cards of patients with AH there is no record of AHT prescription: at a young age - in 9.6%, at old age in 15.1% of cards. Despite the fact of high and very high cardiovascular risk of the majority of patients, lipid - lowering therapy (statins) was prescribed insufficiently. The most statin administration was observed in hypertensive patients with coronary artery disease (50.1%) and myocardial infarction (62.7%).

Keywords

• arterial hypertension
• gender characteristics
• antihypertensive therapy
• registry of arterial hypertension