AN UPDATE IN TARGET ORGAN DAMAGE IN HYPERTENSI0N

Abstract

Hypertension IS an important medical disease constituting a major health problem. It has wide.spread devastating sequelae on various organs in the

•whole body ending in •end organ damage;

It is defined by the WHO .as a rise m systolic blood pressure

>160mmHg or dia tolic. blood pressure >90 mmHg.

• Hypertension is a common disease with a prevalence in Egypt of

26.3%.

It is one of the mostimportant risk factors in both coronary heart . . . . . . - . disease and cerebrovascular accidents. It must be very well known that

there is no rigidly defined threshold of blood pressure above which an individual .. is consi_dered at risk for the complications of hypertension and below which he is safe but we must know a fact that the detrimental effects of blood pressure increases continuously as blood pressure rises.

Hypertension results in the development of left ventricular hypertrophy and heart failure and accelerates atherosclerosis.

Hypertension causes structural changes in both large .and small arteries. Remodeling of the arterial wall involves intimal thickening from smooth muscle cell hyperplasia and medial hypertrophy as a result of smooth muscle cell hypertrophy or hyperplasia.