Abstract
Overview: Hypertensive emergencies are one of the common causes that lead patients to be admitted to the emergency department and can potentially result in major cardiac events. Objective: To investigate characteristics and organ damage in patients with acute hypertensive emergencies or urgent hypertensive patients admitted to the Emergency Department at An Giang Cardiology Hospital. Subjects and methods: All patients admitted to the emergency department and diagnosed with hypertensive emergency or urgency were included in our study. This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. Result: Out of 110 patients, 77 were diagnosed with hypertensive emergency and 33 had hypertensive urgency. Among them, 40.9% were male, and 59.1% were female. Types of end-organ damage associated with hypertensive emergencies included brain (72.8% patients, 37% ischemic stroke or TIA, 35.8% hemorrhagic stroke, transient ischemic attack), heart (26% patients, 2.5% acute myocardial infarction, 23.5% acute heart failure), acute kidney injury (10.9%), and dissecting aortic aneurysm (1.2%). Among hypertensive emergency patients, 83.1% were discharged, and 16.9% were either dead or critical. Conclusion: The predominant factor leading to hypertensive crisis is non-compliance with treatment. The majority of target organ damage among hypertensive emergency patients were brain and heart. Approximately 17% of hypertensive emergency patients were either dead or critical.
