DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i02.006

Pages: 316-321

Cardiovascular diseases are emerging as one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the Indian population. The major risk factors contributing to cardiovascular diseases include hypertension, diabetes mellitus, smoking, hypercholesterolemia and family history of coronary artery disease. Among which hypertension contributes the most. Arterial stiffness, a major contributor of atherosclerosis, has been shown to have positive relationship with systolic hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke and heart failure. Hence measurement of arterial stiffness seems to be an important tool to assess cardiovascular risk in hypertensive patients. So the present study was undertaken to find out the relationship between arterial stiffness and hypertension in Jodhpur city. 103 subjects with systolic blood pressure >120 mm Hg, were taken, ranging between 25-90 years of age. Anthropometric measures were done manually while all other measures including the parameters of arterial stiffness were recorded by the PERISCOPE. All the parameters of arterial stiffness were found positively and significantly increasing with systolic blood pressure as well as with pulse pressure of the subjects. So a population based screening and early detection of hypertension and arterial stiffness can be an important strategy to reduce cardiovascular disease incidence which is the no. 1 cause of death globally.