Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0085580 (essential hypertension)
 14,686 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Most cardiovascular problems in pregnant women arise from the complications of preexisting chronic conditions (e.g., rheumatic and congenital heart disease) and hypertensive vascular disease. Regular supervision of these patients is essential to detect incipient pulmonary congestion or disturbances of cardiac rhythm. Even if the pregnancy has been uncomplicated, hospital admission 1-4 weeks before the due date is recommended to ensure optimal conditions for labor. Vaginal delivery at term with adequate sedation and use of forceps to shorten the 2nd stage of labor is the perferred mode. Induction of labor may be indicated in hypertensive vascular disease or in cases where adjusting or discontinuing drug therapy calls for precise timing of delivery. Eisenmenger's disease and primary hypertension are potential medical indications for pregnancy termination. The distribution pattern of organic heart disease encountered in pregnant women has changed in the past 20 years, with a decrease in rheumatic and an increase in congenital heart disease. The incidence of chronic rheumatic heart disease in pregnant women fell from 3.5% of all deliveries at Newcastle General Hospital in 1942-51 to 1.1% in 1962-71. Acute pulmonary edema in mitral stenosis is currently a major risk during pregnancy. There is no optimal stage of pregnancy for valvotomy, nor evidence that this procedure induces miscarriage in the early weeks. Pregnancy has become less hazardous in severe forms of congenital heart disease as more patients with these disorders have undergone cardiac surgery prior to pregnancy. Pregnancy is not believed to have any effect on the longterm course of rheumatic heart disease. Patients with aortic stenosis, coarctation of the aorta, primary pulmonary hypertension, Fallot's tetralogy, Eisenmenger's syndrome, and surgically untreated cyanotic lesions require special attention during pregnancy. The outlook for women who become pregnant after an acute cardiac infarction episode depends on the functional state of the heart at the time of pregnancy and the presence or absence of angina pain. There has been a gradual decline in perinatal mortality, especially in cases complicated by rheumatic heart disease.
 ...
PMID:Cardiac disorders. 34 Jan 1

Of eight patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, final diagnosis established by autopsy or angiography, four had primary hypertension and four hypertension from thromboembolism. The perfusion lung scan was distinctly different in the two groups. The lung scan in primary pulmonary hypertension was associated with nonsegmental, patchy defects of perfusion, while in thromboembolic hypertensives it was characterized by segmental and/or lobar defects of perfusion with or without subsegmental defects. The perfusion lung scan is a valuable, noninvasive study in the evaluation of the patient with pulmonary hypertension of undetermined cause and in the exclusion of occult large-vessel pulmonary thromboembolism.
 ...
PMID:Perfusion lung scanning: differentiation of primary from thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension. 387 Nov 43

Some of the relatively easily measurable and possibly hypertension-associated parameters were evaluated in thirty normotensive young subjects divided into the PHT (either parent hypertensive) group and the PNT (both parents normotensive) group. In subjects of the PHT group, the platelet aggregating sensitivity to the arachidonic acid and the ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol were significantly (p less than 0.05) increased while urinary kallikrein excretion was decreased without simultaneously significant elevation of blood pressure. The enhanced platelet aggregating sensitivity to the arachidonic acid and the increased ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol suggest that subjects with a positive family history of hypertension might have a greater tendency to atherosclerosis and could contribute to the development of essential hypertension. Decreased urinary kallikrein excretion suggests that the vasodepressive activity of the kallikrein-kinin system might be inhibited in subjects with a positive family history of hypertension.
 ...
PMID:Relation of family history of hypertension to platelet aggregation, ratio of total cholesterol to HDL cholesterol and urinary kallikrein excretion. 643 May 81

Alteration of calcium metabolism and changes in the levels of calcium-regulating hormones have been described in essential hypertension. In the majority of the reported clinical trials, calcium supplementation has resulted in a decrease in blood pressure. However, the mechanisms by which such a response would be mediated are entirely unknown. The present study confirmed that daily supplementation with 1.4 g of elemental calcium led to a significant decrease in both systolic and diastolic blood pressures (P < .01). Decrease in blood pressure was negatively correlated with increase in plasma calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP), measured with radioimmunoassay and by radioreceptor assay (P < .001), and positively correlated with decrease in intact parathyroid hormone (PHT) (P < .05). Following cessation of calcium supplementation, plasma CGRP levels and the blood pressure both reverted back to the base-line values, suggesting a direct effect of supplemented calcium on these two parameters.
 ...
PMID:Antihypertensive effects of oral calcium supplementation may be mediated through the potent vasodilator CGRP. 813

Endothelins are ubiquitously produced 21-amino-acid peptides that were discovered as an endothelial product and may play important roles in cardiovescular physiology and pathophysiology. The main endothelin produced by the endothelium is endothelin-1. The vasoconstrictor role of endothelins may participate in blood pressure elevation and vascular hypertrophy in salt-dependent models of hypertension (deoxycorticosterone acetate-salt hypertensive rats, spontaneously hypertensive rats treated with deoxycorticosterone, acetate and salt, and Dehl salt-sensitive rats), and in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats. In humans, endothelins may play important roles in moderate to severe essential hypertension, and in the hypertension of African-Americans. Endothelins may be involved in cardiac hypertrophy, and there is increasing evidence of their participation in heart failure, in which acute endothelin antagonism in humans exerts beneficial effects. Endothelin expression is enhanced in smooth muscle cells migrating into the intima of arteries in atherosclerosis, suggesting a role in atherogenesis. Endothelin may participate as a vasoconstrictor in coronary artery disease, and as a contributor to intimal proliferation in restenosis after coronary angioplasty. In patients with myocardial infarction, cardiac production of endothelin is increased, particularly in those with cardiogenic shock. There is a potential for participation of endothelins in vasospasm accompanying stroke or subarachnoid hemorrhage: in the latter, endothelin antagonism has shown beneficial effects in experimental models. In neonatal and in primary pulmonary hypertension, endothelin expression is enhanced, and in experimental models endothelin antagonism resulted in favorable responses. Systemic sclerosis is another, peripheral, form of vascular disease in which endothelin may play a role and in which endothelin antagonism may be an interesting therapeutic alternative. The pathophysiologic role of endothelins is becoming increasingly apparent in cardiovascular disease, generating interesting potential therapeutic targets for the use of endothelin antagonists or endothelin-converting enzyme inhibitors.
 ...
PMID:Clinical significance of endothelin in cardiovascular disease. 926 47

Blade atrial septostomy (BAS) for pulmonary hypertension has increased long-term survival and is an effective and palliative preliminary to heart and/or lung transplantation. We treated an 18-year-old woman with severe pulmonary primary hypertension whose symptoms had worsened as a resulted low cardiac output. The patient's right ventricular pressure was 150/23 mmHg, cardiac index (CI) 1.0 L/min per m2, and she showed signs and symptoms of severe primary pulmonary hypertension. We performed BAS successfully, paying particular attention to the following points. To maintain pulmonary blood flow after creating an atrial right-to-left shunt, the patient was infused intravenously with packed red blood cells and volume expander. Oxygen delivery was also increased by the transfusion of packed red blood cells. To avoid unacceptable hypoxemia immediately after the procedure, the atrial septum was initially incised with a very small-blade catheter. Nine months after the BAS, catheterization revealed a decrease in mean pulmonary arterial pressure to 73 mmHg and an increase in CI to 2.5 L/min per m2. Thirteen months after the BAS, the patient died as a result of progressive worsening of right-sided heart failure. We concluded that BAS could be successful in patients with severe pulmonary hypertension providing attention is paid to the patient's condition and that BAS is an effective therapy for prolonging survival.
 ...
PMID:Successful blade atrial septostomy in a patient with severe primary pulmonary hypertension--a case report. 938 71

Endogenous peptidases participate in a major way in the formation of peptide pressor substances such as angiotensin II (A II) and endothelin (ET) as well as in the degradation of depressor substances, e.g. atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) or bradykinin. They include on the one hand the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and endothelin converting enzyme (ECE), on the other hand kinase II for bradykinin and neutral endopeptidase 24.11 (NEP) for ANP. Inhibition of these enzymatic reactions leads to a decline of vasopressors A II and ET and conversely delays the break-down of vasodilatating bradykinin and ANP. The main haemodynamic consequence of this double inhibition is a reduced peripheral vascular resistance and decline of the blood pressure. The concurrent block of both systems (dual inhibition) is more effective than the isolated block of one substance. The first dual endopeptidase inhibitors were ACE inhibitors blocking the conversion of angiotensin I to A II and inhibiting at the same time the degradation of bradykinin by kininase II which is identical with ACE. At present further substances were synthetized with a dual inhibitory effect e.g. on ECE and on NEP (phosphoramidone, thiorphan, ecadatril etc.). Under experimental conditions they have a long-term antihypertensive effect on the vascular wall and heart muscle. The development of another dual ACE and NEP inhibitor has reached already the stage of clinical tests and the first clinical studies. The preparation omapatrilate in amounts of 2.5-80 mg significantly reduced the BP in a dose-dependent way in mild and medium advanced essential hypertension. Normalization of the blood pressure, i.e. a drop below 140/90 mm Hg, was achieved with omapatrilate monotherapy in as many as 83% of patients with hypertension stage I and in 53% patients with essential hypertension stage II. The drop of blood pressure after 20-80 mg/day depended on the degree of hypertension and was comparable or better than monotherapy with lisonopril 20 mg/day or amlodipine 10 mg/day. Treatment with omapatrilate was well tolerated. Dual peptidase inhibitors interfering with the formation of pressor substances and with the degradation of depressor substances seem to be a perspective class of antihypertensives also useful in the treatment of other cardiovascular diseases (heart failure, primary pulmonary hypertension). Before its final inclusion in the therapeutic pattern, further comparative and clinical mortality studies must be implemented.
 ...
PMID:[Dual endopeptidase inhibitors--a new direction in the development of hypertensive agents]. 1104 16

Primary pulmonary hypertension is a progressive disease. Most affected patients are young and middle-aged women. Etiology is unknown, although a familial and genetic factor is present in up to 6% of cases. Endothelial dysfunction and abnormalities in calcium channels of smooth muscle fibers are the present pathogenetics theories. Diagnostic tests try to exclude secondary causes of pulmonary hypertension and to evaluate its severity. Acute vasodilatory test is vital in the selection of treatment. Oral anticoagulation is indicated in all patients. Lung transplant is performed when medical treatment is unsuccessful. Atrial septostomy is an alternative and palliative treatment for selected cases. Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension is a special form of secondary pulmonary hypertension, clinically undistinguishable from primary primary hypertension, is of mandatory diagnosis because it can be cured with thromboembolectomy. Pulmonary embolism is common in hospitalised patients. The mortality rate for pulmonary embolism continues to be high: up to 30% in untreated patients. The accurate detection of pulmonary embolism remains difficult, as pulmonary embolism can accompany as well as mimic other cardiopulmonary illnesses. Non-invasive diagnostic tests have poor specificity and sensitivity. The D-dimer level and the spiral CT angiography have also been employed as new alternatives and important tools for precise diagnosis of suspected pulmonary embolism. The standard therapy of pulmonary embolism is intravenous heparin for 5 to 10 days in conjunction with oral anticoagulants posteriorly for 3 to 6 months. The incidence of deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism and death due to pulmonary embolism, can be reduced significantly and shown clear benefits only by adoption of a prophylactic strategy with low-molecular-weight-heparins or dextrans in patients at risk.
 ...
PMID:[Clinical practice guidelines of the Spanish Society of Cardiology for pulmonary thromboembolism and hypertension]. 1153 93