how to identify arterial hypertension and how to treat it

Sphygmomanometers, also known as sphygmomanometers, are used as the principal diagnostic instrument for measuring blood pressure and are subject to regulatory validation and approval.

The first lines of defence for the identification of hypertension are the primary care teams, doctors, and nurses. They have action plans in the consultation to do routine measurements. In the event that a diagnosis is not made, the patient may then begin any necessary treatments.

Additionally, local pharmacists help to monitor and manage arterial hypertension.

Routine check-ups are another area that aids the patient in recognising hypertension and alerts him that it would be prudent to visit a specialist to receive a potential diagnosis. For instance, organisations conduct inspections or patients undergo inspections when they wish to begin participating in a federation or semi-professional sport.

Because they are typically performed on patients who have never seen a doctor because they have been healthy up until this point, these controls are crucial because they can aid in the patient’s diagnosis.

Treatments

There are two key building pieces to treating it:

an improvement in lifestyle

A person should maintain a balanced diet, cut back on high-calorie, sugar- and fat-containing foods, and up their activity.

Pharmacological treatments

Nowadays, pharmaceutical medications are helpful to regulate blood pressure if lifestyle modifications do not work. Initial therapies only use one medication. To manage blood pressure, however, there are some circumstances when two or three medications are required.

The following categories are used to categorise drugs for hypertension:

Diuretics (thiazides, chlorthalidone and indapamide) (thiazides, chlorthalidone and indapamide).
Beta-blockers.
Calcium blockers.
inhibitors of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE).
antagonists of the angiotensin II receptor (ARA-II).

Alpha-blockers, which are second- or third-line treatments, should be added as the sixth category.

As a chronic condition, high blood pressure requires that patients adhere to their therapies. 90% of people with hypertension do not adhere to the dietary or hygienic advice of experts, and 50% do not adhere to the recommended medications, according to Seh-Lelha statistics.

This is due to the fact that patients prefer to relax while following a doctor’s advice because they have been dealing with this pathology for a long time. This has a number of implications. The biggest one is that their hypertension won’t be well-controlled, which over time might result in serious cardiovascular consequences including myocardial infarction, stroke, decreased renal function, or poor circulation in the legs, among others.

Other data

Forecast

Because to better therapies, their intensification, and growing public awareness of healthier lifestyles, there has been an increase in the degree of control of hypertension in recent years. For instance, medication reinforcement—having patients take two pills instead of one—has been essential in improving control.

The major global cause of complications and death is still cardiovascular disease. The obesity pandemic, which health experts anticipate will worsen, will result in a continuation of this condition in the upcoming years.

When should the specialist suggest taking your blood pressure yourself?

Generally speaking, a medical practitioner can always advise against taking your own blood pressure (with a few exceptions, mainly in obsessive patients with a tendency to self-medication). The so-called “white coat phenomenon,” which refers to the feeling that patients have when they enter a medical facility and stand in front of a professional, can be avoided with the help of this very effective method, which enables knowing the patient’s tension outside of the consultation, in their daily life. Patients’ blood pressure rises a bit more than average as a result of this condition.

Blood pressure should be checked by yourself in the morning and at night after 3 minutes of relaxation. The correct posture is to sit with your legs straight, your back resting on the chair, and your arm resting on the table with the cuff on it. It is advised to apply the cuff on the arm (and not on the wrist, with some exceptions -obese people-).

The patient is required to write down the findings of the self-measurement in a notebook. When he has an appointment, he should bring this notebook to the appropriate medical expert (doctor or nurse) to go through them together. The expert will evaluate the patient’s therapy and follow-up based on these findings.

pressure measuring devices

There are several tools available for taking blood pressure:

The most accurate and error-free is the mercury sphygmomanometer. Its use necessitates the use of a stethoscope.
The most common and accurate tool is the air sphygmomanometer. A stethoscope is also required for its use.
Self-monitoring is frequently done with an electronic gadget. Due to its ease of use and built-in pulse detector, it does not require a stethoscope. The arm must remain immobile, and the individual must remain silent for the values to be correct because the instrument is extremely sensitive to sound and movement. The item has to be in excellent working order.

A number of other prerequisites must be satisfied in order to take a blood pressure reading:

The cuff of the sphygmomanometer should be positioned at the heart’s level to take a blood pressure reading. At least two centimetres of the top border must be above the elbow bend. The cuff is then inflated to 180 millimetres of mercury. Systolic pressure is increased to a pressure that is 200 mm Hg higher than the most recent measurement if it is known that the systolic pressure was higher than this amount in prior readings. The elbow flexure is used to position the stethoscope bell where the arterial beat had previously been, and the cuff is progressively deflated. The systolic or maximum pressure is represented by the initial beat heard, and the diastolic or minimum pressure is represented by the beat’s disappearance. The beats persist in some children and some adults;