Clustering of coronary artery disease risk factors in Jordanian hypertensive patients

OBJECTIVE: To assess the coronary artery disease risk factors in hypertensive Jordanian patients in various hospitals in Jordan.

METHODS: Two hundred and seven patients were assessed by physicians in various hospitals in Jordan including King Hussein Medical Center , Prince Rashid Medical Hospital and King Abdullah University Hospital Primary Health Care Internal Medicine Clinic from March 2003 to October 2003. Clinical assessment included blood pressure (BP), anthropometric data, metabolic and chemical profile were collected.

RESULTS: The average age of sample was 58.9 + 11.28 years old. The mean body mass index was 29.4 + 6.4 kg/m2, 77 patients (37.2%) were overweight and 83 patients (40.1%) were obese. Smoking habit was prevalent in 78 patients (37.7%). Analysis of data showed that female had a higher systolic BP than male, while male had a higher diastolic BP than female. The mean serum cholesterol level was 205.7 + 65.7 mg/dl, while the mean fasting blood glucose was 150.1 + 63.9 mg/dl. The sample was staged according to the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High BP classification, 87 patients (42%) showed optimal and normal BP (<130/85 mm Hg), 40 patients (19.3%) showed high normal BP (130-139/85-89 mm Hg), 47 patients (22.7%) with stage 1 hypertension (140-159/90-99 mm Hg), 15 patients (7.2%) with stage 2 hypertension (160-179/100-109 mm Hg) and 18 patients (8.7%) with stage 3 hypertension (>180/110 mm Hg). The high prevalence of risk factors in hypertensive patients is alarming, particularly the high prevalence of poor control of BP, smoking in men, hypercholesterolemia and obesity in women.

CONCLUSION: The BP control is inadequate in large percentage of this sample and a number of risk factors cluster in both adequately and inadequately controlled hypertensive patients.