Aim: of the study was further investigation of diagnostics and management of cardiac complications of essential hypertension (EH).
Methods: Retrospective analysis of annual reports of cardiological departments for 10 year period was carried out. Internists (n=330) from 6 regions of Russia participated in the study. Anonymous questioning was used for the study of physicians views on diagnosis, prognostication of outcomes, and monitoring of hypertensive heart disease (HHD). Responses were compared with information from practical clinical recommendations.
Results and conclusions: Clinicians were poorly informed about nosology, echocardiographic criteria of diagnosis of HHD. They did not use prognostication of development of cardiac arrhythmias caused by hypertension. Large portion of participants (39.09%) was not aware of possibilities of drug therapy of HHD. About 1/3 of physicians could not select appropriate indications for echocardiographic examination of patients with EH. One third of participating physicians did not know EH induced echocardiographic changes. These results stress the importance of creation of a complex method of ambulatory monitoring of EH complications. Such method is suggested in this paper.
Keywords: cardiac arrhythmias; cardiac complications; echocardiography; essential hypertension; hypertensive heart disease.