Clinico-epidemiological features of patients attended during a hypertensive crisis in the emergency service of a municipal hospital of Fortaleza, Ceará

Abstract

Hypertensive crisis is an abrupt and symptomatic arousal of the arterial pressure in which target-organs may suffer acute deterioration, resulting in death. This is a quantitative and descriptive study carried out in the emergency service of a municipal hospital of Fortaleza, Ceara. A total of 118 patients who entered the service during April and July/2006 were evaluated. Results show that prevalence of hypertensive crisis was 0.3% and hypertensive urgencies were 88.1% of the cases. Untreated arterial hypertension and having a clinical comorbidity increase the risk of suffering a hypertensive crisis. Although prevalence is small, it is important to recognize the clinico-epidemiological profile of these patients in order to offer a more adequate care.