Nasir Siddique, Fahad Bashir, Waseem Farooq Shah, Ayman Shahzad, Muhammad Shakil.
Frequency of Aortic Regurgitation in patients with Hypertension presenting in a Teaching Hospital.
Pak J Med Health Sci Jan ;12(3):1203-7.

Background: It is usually presumed that hypertension (HTN) leads to aortic root expansion following aortic regurgitation (AR) but recent studies of M-mode and pathological echocardiography have not established any association between hypertension and aortic root enlargement when age is considered. AIM: To assess the frequency of aortic regurgitation in hypertensive patients presenting in a tertiary care hospital for regular check-up. Method: This was a descriptive, Cross sectional study and it was completed in 6 months. Reports of 150 patients fulfilling selection criteria were selected from medical record section of hospital, Department of Medicine, Cavan General Hospital, Ireland. Demographic details were obtained. Then reports of echocardiography were assessed. The diagnosis was interpreted as following; if yellow, red, or mosaic signals were observed initiating from the aortic valve and disseminating into left ventricle (LV) during diastole on echocardiography, then AR was labeled . All procedures were noted on a proforma. The data was entered and analyzed on SPSS version 21. Results: In this study, it was found that about 16 (10.67%) of the hypertensive patients were diagnosed with AR. Frequency of AR was found to be higher in older patients. Among female patients its frequency was found higher in over-weight patients. On the other hand, around 50% diabetic patients (8/16) exhibited positive findings for AR and patients whose duration of hypertension was in between 11-20 years among them the frequency of AR was highest (41.8%). However all these factors did not show any statistically significant association with AR. Conclusion: It is concluded that this study showed low frequency (10.67%) of AR in patients presenting with hypertension. In routine practice, AR among hypertensive patients is ignorable. Despite of AR low frequency, hypertensive patients should be regularly screened for AR so that they may be prevented from development of AR and its complication.

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