The impact of antihypertensive medication class on pulse pressure

الملخص EN

Background : Hypertension with high pulse pressure causes more arterial damage compared to high blood pressure with normal pulse pressure.

Objective : This is a cross section descriptive study carried out to explore the efficacy of different antihypertensive therapies using the pulse pressure as a predictor of better response and show the associations between antihypertensive medication class and the magnitude of pulse pressure among persons receiving treatment for hypertension.

Patients and methods : 921 hypertensive patients on different antihypertension medication classes who attending An Nasiriyah General Hospital out patients over 6 months are examined to determined their pulse pressure and compared the results of different groups according to age of the patients and antihypertension medication classes.

Results : hypertensive subjects who used diuretics alone or in combination with betablockers had lower mean pulse pressure as compared with those using other agents and this finding is so clear and statically significant among patients older than 60 with no sex difference.