Relationship between hypertension and carotid atherosclerotic plaque

Objective:To investigate the relationship among stage of hypertension,pulse pressure and incidence of carotid atherosclerotic plaque.Methods:A total of 160 patients with essential hypertension(EH)were divided into three groups according to the stage(stage 1 46 cases,stage 2 56 cases,stage 3 58 cases),43 healthy persons were regard as normal control group.Doppler and two dimensional ultrasound examination were performed,and blood pressure,the serum high sensitive C-reaction protein(hs-CRP),fibrinogen and serum lipid were measured in each group.The 160 EH patients also were divided into three groups(A,B,and C) according to the pulse pressure and compared the incidence of carotid atherosclerotic plaque with normal control group.Results: ①The hs-CRP in EH groups [stage 1(1.90±3.34) mg/L,stage 2(2.50±2.39) mg/L,stage 3(12.00±35.76)mg/L)] was higher than that of normal control group(1.77±2.80)mg/L,and compared between groups one by one had significant difference(P0.05~0.001);②The incidence of carotid atherosclerotic plaque in EH groups(stage 1 50.00%,stage 2 53.57%,stage 3 86.21%)was higher than that of normal control group(25.58%,P0.001);and compared between groups one by one had significant difference(P0.05~0.001);③The incidence of carotid atherosclerotic plaque elevated with increasing pulse pressure gradually and among three groups(pulse pressure:group A 40 mmHg,group B 41~59 mmHg,group C ≥60 mmHg) had significant difference(group A 33.33% vs.group B 62.16% vs.group C 83.93%,P0.001 respectively).Conclusion: The stage of hypertension and pulse pressure are risk factors of carotid atherosclerotic plaque