Arterial Hypertension and Vascular Risk

Welcome to the Arterial Hypertension and Vascular Risk Module!

High blood pressure (BP) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality. Its high prevalence is favored by the progressive aging of the population, as well as by the frequent presence of disorders that facilitate it, such as obesity, diabetes and chronic renal disease, or that increase vascular risk, such as dyslipidemia.

Unfortunately, the degree of control of ETS is achieved in less than 50% of hypertensives. Possible causes include failure to detect secondary causes of hypertension, inadequate adherence to therapy, or resistant hypertension.

Primary care physicians have a key role in addressing the hypertensive patient, as you are the one who will receive and follow most of them. You need to know not only how to diagnose hypertension, but also how to assess overall cardiovascular risk, with tools such as 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, carotid ultrasound, ankle/brachial index measurement, bioimpedance, and central blood pressure, measure the speed of the pulse wave, and to know how to detect secondary causes (captopril test, adrenal vein catheterization) and therapeutic possibilities (renal sympathetic denervation, adrenalectomy, renal artery angioplasty), as well as unusual pharmacological treatments.