Abstract

FERRER SANTOS, Vania; DOMINGUEZ HERNANDEZ, Mileidys  and  MENDEZ ROSABAL, Ariadna. The high blood pressure as a cause of death. Rev Cub Med Mil [online]. 2011, vol.40, n.2, pp.168-173. ISSN 0138-6557.

Introduction: high blood pressure is a major risk factor on the morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular origin according to the death certificate, Objective: to assess the repercussion of this risk factor as cause of death. Methods: a retrospective and descriptive study was conducted in patients deceased with high blood pressure between 2002 and 2007. Study variables were: age, sex, skin color, direct cause of death, basic cause of death, contributing cause of death and clinical/pathological correlation. Results: there found that the 9.1 % of deceases were hypertensive, the more involved age group was that of 65-74 years (23.4 %) and the mean age was of 65 years. In 248 deceased there was a total diagnostic coincidence in relation to the direct cause of death (74.6 %) and in 236 deceased in the basic cause of death (71.0 %). High blood pressure was the basic cause of death in the 59.3 % and the contributing cause of death in the 18.97 %. In more than a half of cases, high blood pressure was involved in the death mechanisms through the basic and the contributing cause of death. Conclusions: High blood pressure is a causal determinant factor in the mortality and the progression of atherosclerotic vascular damage.

Keywords : high blood pressure; atherosclerosis; direct cause of death; basic cause of death; contributing cause of death.

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