Haemodynamic changes in emergency department patients with poorly controlled hypertension.

Objectives: This study aimed to measure cardiac output, systemic vascular resistance, cardiac index, and systemic vascular resistance index in emergency department patients with poorly controlled hypertension; and to determine the frequency in which antihypertensive drugs prescribed do not address the predominant haemodynamic abnormality.

Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was conducted in an emergency department of a 1400-bed tertiary hospital in Hong Kong. Patients aged 18 years or above, with systolic blood pressure of ≥160 mm Hg or diastolic blood pressure of ≥100 mm Hg based on two or more measurements and on two separate occasions within 2 to 14 days, were included.