Dr. Genet, Solomon(PhD)Dr.Menon, Menakath(PhD )Chekol, Endeshaw2020-03-232023-11-292020-03-232023-11-292019-09http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/21219Introduction: 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.en-USHypertension, D-dimer, Yikatit 12 Hospital Medical CollegeThesis