Cardiovascular risk factors in hypertensive patients with positive or negative family history of premature cardiovascular diseases – the RISK study population

Abstract

Background Positive family history of premature cardiovascular events is considered a significant risk factor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
Objective Comparison of cardiovascular risk factors prevalence in patients with mild to moderate uncomplicated hypertension according to positive or negative family history of premature cardiovascular events in the RISK study population.
Material and methods 1040 patients with grade 1 or 2 new-onset or untreated essential hypertension, aged 53.5 (± 10.1) years admitted to specialist outpatient clinics in Poland were included in the study. The prevalence of high10-years cardiovascular death risk (> 5% according to SCORE charts for high-risk regions of Europe), moderate hypertension, isolated systolic hypertension, smoking, high heart rate, obesity, metabolic syndrome and increased total cholesterol, LDL, HDL, TG, uric acid, glucose levels were compared in two subgroups – with positive (n = 298) and negative (n = 742) family history of premature cardiovascular events using chi square test.
Results Hypertension stage 2, increased T-Chol, LDL-Chol, TG, decreased HDL-Chol, obesity, metabolic syndrome, cigarette smoking and high heart rate have been found significantly more frequently in the positive family history group than in the negative family history group. Prevalences of isolated systolic hypertension, abnormally high uric acid and glucose levels and SCORE ≥ 5% were not significantly different.
Conclusion Positive family history of premature cardiovascular events seems to be associated with higher prevalence of several classic cardiovascular risk factors.