A focus on hypertension: a modest condition of enormous significance.

摘要

Of the conditions seen by cardiologists, hypertension is one of the less dramatic. Apart from hypertensive emergencies, which are a thankfully rare but dramatic condition, hypertension is usually clinically silent and, when properly treated, has little evident immediate consequence. Nevertheless, increased blood pressure is considered the single most important mortality risk factor, estimated to be associated with 13.5% of deaths worldwide, and is a major contributor to many of the most common and severe conditions treated by cardiovascular specialists. Hypertension is importantly involved in the pathophysiology and clinical manifestations of coronary artery disease,carotid atherosclerosis,congestive heart failure, and atrial fibrillation, to mention only a few.