Hypertension is the most common chronic disease, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases caused by hypertension are still the main cause of death among Chinese residents.
Long-term hypertension may cause damage to many target organs of the body, so patients with hypertension should have regular examinations besides regular follow-up visits, which will help doctors observe and master the development of the disease and prevent and delay the occurrence of complications.
Long-term hypertension is likely to cause damage to the following target organs:
What items do hypertensive patients need to check regularly?
After the diagnosis of hypertension, in addition to measuring blood pressure, the following tests are also essential:
1, blood biochemical examination
Including blood lipid, blood sugar, liver and kidney function; Electrolytes such as blood potassium and blood sodium; Serum uric acid, serum creatinine, renin-angiotensin-aldosterone; Blood routine and other indicators help to determine whether hypertension has complications such as hyperlipidemia, diabetes, hyperuricemia, etc., whether it is caused by kidney diseases, and judge the damage degree of hypertension to target organs such as heart and kidney.
2. Electrocardiogram, echocardiography and chest X-ray examination.
Hypertension can threaten the health of the heart, and ECG can help to determine whether there are problems such as myocardial hypertrophy, arrhythmia and myocardial ischemia. Echocardiography plays a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension by describing the information of left ventricular hypertrophy, left atrial enlargement, cardiac dysfunction and right ventricular changes in patients with hypertension.
Chest X-ray plain film can observe the target organ damage such as abnormal aorta, cardiovascular calcification, atherosclerotic plaque, etc. In clinical application, joint diagnosis can be made according to specific conditions, providing reasonable guidance for clinical diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.
Retina is the only body tissue that can directly and non-invasively observe blood vessels and microcirculation. Fundus examination can understand the damage of arterioles, such as the general or local stenosis of retinal arterioles indicating moderate damage of arterioles; Bleeding or exudation of retina, or edema of optic papilla, indicate that the degree of vascular injury is serious. In a word, hypertensive retinopathy can reflect the severity of hypertension and objectively reflect the damage degree of small vascular disease in the whole body. Fundus examination is helpful for clinical diagnosis, treatment and prognosis evaluation.
4. Routine urine examination
Routine urine examination can know whether hypertension is caused by renal diseases and whether there is early renal damage. If there are a large number of urinary proteins, red blood cells, white blood cells and casts in urine, renal damage caused by nephritis or pyelonephritis should be considered; If there is only a small amount of urine protein and a small amount of red blood cells, it may be renal damage caused by essential hypertension.
In addition to the above examination, 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is also very important, which can record the blood pressure in normal life day and night and understand the law of blood pressure day and night, so as to guide the medication time and dosage reasonably.
In order to rule out secondary hypertension, we need to do some special tests, such as measuring the levels of renin, aldosterone, corticosteroid and catecholamine. Ultrasound or CT or magnetic resonance of kidney, adrenal gland and renal artery, etc.
Although they are all hypertensive diseases, everyone has individual differences, and the causes of high blood pressure are also very different. Therefore, only by comprehensively understanding the condition and carefully evaluating the physical condition can we formulate a more accurate treatment plan.
