[Outpatient diagnostics of the initial stage of essential hypertension].

The informative value of functional diagnostic methods in the revealing of the initial stage of essential hypertension (EH) in patients with high risk of cardiovascular complications (CVC) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2) was studied. The subjects of the study were 186 men considering themselves practically healthy, with high risk of CVC according to SCORE scale. Mean age of the subjects was 47.9 +/- 0.87 years; persons with various metabolic disorders prevailed. The patients were divided into two groups according to body mass index (BMI): group 1 patients (n = 142) had a BMI of > or = 25 kg/m2 (29.16 +/- 0.49); group 2 (n = 46) patients had a BMI of < 25 kg/m2 (22.95 +/- 0.37). The patients underwent clinical and laboratory examination including the measurement of biochemical parameters of lipid, carbohydrate, and purine metabolism. ECG, EchoCG, and 24-hour blood pressure monitoring (BPM) were performed. Office BP levels, 24-hour BMP data, and signs of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) according to ECG and EchoCG were evaluated. The study found that in persons with excessive body weight stable 24-hour arterial hypertension with both systolic and diastolic BP increased prevailed, while in subjects with normal body weight systolic arterial hypertension prevailed. The use of milder LVH criteria (left ventricular myocardial mass index > 116 g/m2) increased the number of persons with stage 2 EH. The prevalence of the initial stage of EH according to 24-hour BPM (87.4%) is 2.8 times higher than that according to office BP measurement (31.3%).