ER Visits for High Blodd Pressure Shows Upward Trend

A significant rise has been observed in the number of people visiting the emergency room for hypertension with no known cause.

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a chronic medical condition in which the blood pressure levels in the arteries rise. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 3 adults have high blood pressure and just 47 percent of them have their blood pressure under control. It is a silent killer as it occurs with no warning signs or symptoms. Lifestyle and family history is known to up the risk of blood pressure.

The latest study presented by the American Heart Association (AHA) found a 25 percent rise in the number of people visiting the emergency room (ER) for high blood pressure with no known cause.

"This shows we are not doing a good job in controlling high blood pressure in the outpatient setting," said Sourabh Aggarwal, M.D., the study's lead researcher and Chief Resident in the Department of Internal Medicine at Western Michigan University School of Medicine in Kalamazoo. "We need better high blood pressure care in this setting."

The finding is based on the evaluation of data on 3.9 million emergency room visits made during 2006-2011, in which hypertension was the first listed diagnosis. The researchers noticed that the number of ER visits increased by 25 percent and there was a 15 percent reduction in the admission percentage of these patients.  There was a 19 percent rise in ER visits for hypertension along with complication and secondary hypertension, while the admission percentage for these patients dropped by 12 percent.

There was a 36 percent reduction in the mortality rate among the admitted patients who died. Hypertension is known to be the major risk factor for stroke, heart attack and heart failure.

"The decrease in admissions and deaths may be due to emergency room and hospital physicians becoming more skilled at treating high blood pressure," Aggarwal said. "But there is still a large unmet need for patients to have better help controlling their blood pressure in the outpatient setting."

Although the researchers failed to monitor the reason as to why people visited the hospital, AHA suggested that one must visit the ER if his/her blood pressure was above 180/110mm Hg, as it is purely a hypertensive crisis.

The study was presented at the American Heart Association's High Blood Pressure Research Scientific Sessions 2014.