Abstract

A PROSPECTIVE OBSERVATIONAL STUDY ON INCIDENCE OF CARDIAC EVENTS IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS TAKING ACE INHIBITORS

Nithya R.* and Joseph Stalin D.

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Hypertension is a leading risk factor affecting mortality and disability-adjusted life years worldwide. It is considered to be the third major cause of disease burden, globally. Despite the advancement in medical fraternity, reports have shown a rising trend in hypertension prevalence among Indians. It is a chronic disorder; so long term intake of medicine is necessary to control elevated blood pressure. This study specifically tried to find out the Incidence of Cardiac Events in Hypertensive Patients on ACE Inhibitors. Methodology: This was a Prospective observational study conducted over a period of 12 months in the department of General medicine and cardiology on Hypertensive patients taking ACE inhibitors, Patients were assessed at baseline with respect to age, gender, BMI, co- morbidity conditions, ACE inhibitors prescribed and duration of therapy. Patient was followed up for 6 months. The incidences of cardiac events were analyzed, the datas were statistically expressed using Microsoft excel and the values are expressed in percentage. Results: In this study, among 112 patients the male patients 61% were found to be more predominant in number than the female patients 39%.The incidence of cardiac events in hypertensive patients with ACE inhibitors were found to be 20.53%. Our study also shows that the incidence of Angina pectoris and Myocardial infarction were predominant among cardiac events which were 10.71 % and 9.8% respectively. Males were more prone to the incidences of Angina and myocardial infarction. The drugs which cause maximum number in incidences of cardiac events were Ramipril 6%. Conclusion: Incidences of Drug induced problems are common in a hospital and some of them results in increased healthcare cost due to the need of intervention and increased length of hospital stay. Early identification and early initiation and early recovery help to avoid complications hence knowledge about the drug related outcomes are essential to avoid drug related problems. Active involvement of well trained clinical pharmacist for assessing the incidences and creating awareness in health care professionals and patients, regarding to need of reporting the incidence could improve the scenario under reported hospital.

Keywords: Incidence, ACE inhibitors, Hypertension, Angina, Myocardial infarction (MI).