Assessment of Plasma D-Dimer level and its Correlation with Disease Severity among Hypertensive Patients
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Date
2019-09
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Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Introduction: Hypertension is a single most important risk factor for cardiovascular disease,
and the growing public health issue in developing countries. It has been reported that
inappropriate acute thrombus formation (hypercoagulability) is the pathophysiological
substrate underlying increased risk and severity of target organ damage of hypertension, such
as acute coronary syndrome and stroke that can cause significant morbidity and mortality. Plasma D-dimer level has been reported to be a good biochemical marker of thrombosis.
Objectives: The objective of this study was to assess plasma D-dimer level and its correlation
with disease severity among hypertensive patients at Yikatit 12 Hospital Medical College.
Methods: A hospital based comparative cross-sectional study was conducted at Y12HMC.
Hundred participants (60 hypertensives and 40 controls) were recruited in the study. Data
were collected using structured questionnaire through face to face interview, reviewing
medical records and direct measurement of variables. The data was analyzed using SPSS
version 25.0 and categorical variables were described by frequency and percentage while
continuous variables by mean and standard deviation. The association and correlation between
variables were determined using correlation coefficients, regression analysis, and also using
different parametric and non-parametric tests accordingly.
Results: Among study participants, female to male ratio was 1.4 and the mean age was 52
year with a range of 20 to 80 years. Among hypertensives,30(50.0%) were in stage 1 while
14(23.3%) and 16(26.7%) were in stage 2 and severe hypertension respectively. We observed
higher D-dimer levels among hypertensives when compared with the healthy controls
(p<0.001). The plasma D-dimer levels were found to be increased significantly with the
severity of hypertension (p<0.001). D-dimer found to have a diagnostic power of 86.9% in
differentiating complicated from uncomplicated hypertension at 0.83mg FEU/l cut-off value. Conclusion and recommendations: This study suggests that D-dimer level was higher in
hypertensives than control groups and it was also increasing significantly with the severity of
hypertension suggesting hypercoagulability plays a role in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular
disorders and thromboembolic complications of hypertension. But further studies need be
done on larger scale and using more robust study designs such as case control and cohort to
establish the causality of the association between severity of hypertension and D-dimer level.
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Keywords
Hypertension, D-dimer, Yikatit 12 Hospital Medical College