Features of the clinical picture in patients of middle age with essential hypertension.

Aim: To evaluate the presence and the severity of the complaints (headache, dizziness, memory loss, concentration of attention, sleep disturbances, decreased mood, increased anxiety), the state of cognitive functions, emotional status and quality of night sleep in treatment-naïve middle-aged patients with mild to moderate EAH compared to healthy volunteers of the same age.

Materials And Methods: 103 treatment-naïve patients with EAH aged 40-59 years at the enrollment, who met the inclusion/exclusion criteria and provided written informed consent (46 men, mean age 53.6±0.8 years) and 50 healthy volunteers (17 men, mean age 51.5±1.0 years) with normal blood pressure (BP) level - control group - were enrolled to the study. Mean EAH duration was 2.9±5.7 years. Cognitive assessment included Montreal cognitive assessment, 10-words learning task, verbal fluency test, TMT, Stroop color and word test. Anxiety and depression were evaluated via Hamilton rating scales (HARS and HDRS). 24-hours ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) was performed according to European guidelines.

Results: 70% of patients with EAH complained of memory disturbance, 68% - lack of attention, 22% - sleep disturbances, 12% - dizziness, 9% - headache. It took statistically significant more time for patients with EAH to perform on TMT B (p<0.05), they had significantly higher TMT B - TMT A difference score (p<0.01) and lower mean MoCA score (p<0.05). Patients with EAH had significantly higher mean score in Hamilton anxiety (2.1±3.7) and depression (1.1±2.4) rating scales compared to controls (0.3±0.9 points, p<0.01 and 0.1±0.5 points, p<0.001, respectively). Patients with EAH who complained of sleep disturbances had low sleep quality (8.7±2.8 points). Among patients with EAH who complained about headaches 66.6% had episodic migraine and chronic tension type headache (33.4%). Those patients had a substantial impact of headache on life and daily living according to HIT-6 (mean score - 57.5±6.1). Only 2 patients out of 12 with complains about dizziness had benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and Ménière's disease.

Conclusion: Complaints about memory dysfunction, lack of attention, sleep disturbances, less common - dizziness and headaches, are most typical in patients with EAH on the early stages of the disease. They differ from healthy volunteers of the same age by having cognitive impairment and higher anxiety and depression scores. Patients with EAH who complained about sleep disturbances had low sleep quality. Headache in patients with EAH was due to episodic migraine and tension type headache which had a negative impact on life and daily living.