| dc.description.abstract | Introduction: High blood pressure (HBP) is a worldwide health issue responsible of
high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Even though essential HBP is far the
most frequently reported in patients, secondary causes must be known because of
their severity and the possibility of aetiological treatment. No recent epidemiological
data are available about secondary causes of HBP in black African populations. The
aim of this study was to describe aetiological patterns of secondary HBP in patients
followed at Saint-Louis Hospital. Patients and Method: We conducted a retrospec-
tive and descriptive study in regional hospital of Saint-Louis. All patients aged ≥15
years old admitted from January 1st 2011 to January 31st 2015 in internal medicine,
nephrology, emergency and cardiology departments were included. Clinical, para-
clinical data and patients outcomes were collected from medical records. Hyperten-
sion was defined according to JNC8 criteria. Secondary HBP was considered if ex-
plorations identified a clear aetiology to hypertension. Statistical analysis was done
with Excel 2010 and STATA 12.0. Results: We included 9253 patients with mean age
of 35 ± 12 years (15 - 83 years) and sex-ratio of 1.6. Overall 67.5% of patients had
hypertension and secondary causes were found in 10.5% of them. The majority of
patients presented clinical symptoms suggesting a secondary cause of HBP and
first-line laboratory explorations were normal in half of cases. Renal diseases were
responsible for 79.1% of secondary HBP cases mainly dominated by glomeru-
lonephritis (22.6%), vascular nephropathies (18.7%) and autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (5.8%). They were followed by preeclampsia (13.6%) and endo-
crinal aetiologies such as hyperthyroidism (5.8%), hypercorticism (0.5%), pheo-
chromcytoma (0.5%), primary hyperparathyroidism (0.4%) and Conn’s adenoma
(0.1%). Combination of ≥3 antihypertensive drugs was necessary in 71.5% of cases
and surgical treatment was performed in three patients. Blood pressure was normal-
ized in only 27.7% of patients. Conclusion: Secondary causes are frequent in our
young patients with HBP. In the majority of patients complete clinical examination
and minimal laboratory investigations recommended by World Health Organisation
can give an aetiological orientation that needs further radiological and hormonal ex-
plorations. | en_US |
