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Introduction
Hypertension is defined as a sustained elevation
of systemic arterial blood pressure. Individuals are
diagnosed as having hypertension when the average
of two or more blood pressure measurements made
on two or more consecutive clinical visits documents
a diastolic pressure of 90 mmHg or greater or a
systolic pressure of 140 mmHg or greater. Systolic
hypertension even when not accompanied by an
increase in diastolic pressure, is the most significant
factor in causing target ogan damage. A new
classification scheme was introduced in 2003 and is
presented in a table that will be showed later on.
"Optimal" blood pressure is associated with the
lowest cardiocascular risk, whereas those who fall
into the prehypertension category are at risk,
whereas those who fall into the prehypertension
category are at risk for developing hypertension
unless life-style modification is instituted. All stages
of hypertension are associated with the increased
risk for target organ disease events, such as
myocardial infarctionm kidney diseasem and stroke
thus both stage I and 2 hypertension need effective
long therm theraphy.
What causes hypertension?
It is caused by increases in cardiac output, total
peripheral resistance or both. Cardiac output is
increased by any condition that increases heart rate
or stroke volume, whereas peripheral resistance is