Malignant Hypertension (Hypertensive emergencies, High Blood Pressure)
Would you like to know what lab results mean? DDxHub - Differential Diagnosis Hub helps to understand and explains your blood test.
Malignant Hypertension (Hypertensive emergencies, High Blood Pressure) |
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Would you like to know what lab results mean? DDxHub - Differential Diagnosis Hub helps to understand and explains your blood test. |
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You have symptoms and blood work results. How do they correlate? What is the health condition? Some disorders have similar signs and laboratory values. DDxHub helps to define a right diagnosis. Run DDxHub now and enter symptoms and test results. |
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All information on this page is intended for your general knowledge only and does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See Additional Information |
Malignant hypertension is very high blood pressure that comes on suddenly and quickly. The lower (diastolic) blood pressure reading, which is normally around 80 mmHg, is often above 130 mmHg. The disorder affects about 1% of people with high blood pressure, including both children and adults. It is more common in younger adults, especially African-American men. It also occurs in people with: Collagen vascular disorders; Kidney problems; Toxemia of pregnancy; You are at high risk for malignant hypertension if you have had: Kidney failure; Renal hypertension caused by renal artery stenosis. Defined as elevated blood pressure (usually systolic blood pressure >210 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure >130 mmHg) with rapid decompensation of vital organ function. If the clinical suspicion is high, treatment should be initiated immediately without waiting for further tests. It has a good prognosis with appropriate treatment. Blood pressure must be lowered over minutes to hours with parenteral medications in an intensive care setting. Oral medications should be given shortly thereafter to permit weaning from parenteral agents. The initial goal of therapy is to reduce mean arterial Blood pressure by no more than 25% (within minutes to 1 hour), then, if stable, to 160-110 to 100 mmHg within the next 2 to 6 hours. Exceptions to this general rule are patients with intracranial pathology and patients with aortic dissection. Excessive falls in pressure that may precipitate renal, cerebral, or coronary ischemia should be avoided.
