Introduction: Increasing awareness, treatment and control rates of hypertensive patients is a worldwide problem especially in Central and East European countries.
The objective of the study was to determine the yearly changes in the achievement of treatment targets according to ESC 2003–2007 guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension in a preventive profiled ambulatory cardiology setting.
Patients and method: The study included 6591 hypertensive patients examined between 2002–2010 in the Procardia preventive ambulatory in Târgu Mureș, Romania. The sex distribution of the studied patients was 45.64% male average age 57.45 years, and 54.36% female average age 61.28 years. Patients received individually tailored self control education, lifestyle advice and drug treatment – the primary care providers were informed in detailed medical reports. We studied the yearly achievement of target blood pressure levels. We also analysed the frequency of investigations carried out for the global risk assessment screening for subclinical organ damage. We used “MedPrax” integrated patient data management system as an electronic health record. Statistical analysis was performed with the Open Office Calc programme.
Results: Target blood pressure values (under 140/90 mmHg in non diabetic patients and 130/80 in diabetic patients) were reached in 27.51%. The percentage of patients treated to target increased progressively from 15.25% to 36.29%.
Conclusions: The activity of the studied cardiology ambulatory setting provided a yearly increase in the level of blood pressure target achievement. Further improvement measures are needed to increase blood pressure control rates, with a specific attention to the diabetic patients.