Prevalence of hs-CRP among Indians with hypertension.

The prevalence of hypertension in the early twentieth century varied in India, ranging from 2-15% in Urban India and 2-8% in Rural India. In the inter heart and inter stroke study, hypertension accounted for 17.9% and 34.6% of population attributable risk for coronary artery disease and stroke respectively. CRP appears in serum in response to a variety of inflammatory stimuli .Raised level of hs-CRP is seen with increasing with age, during an infection, inflammation, coronary artery diseases, obesity, sepsis, smoking and vasculitis. CRP is also a factor in the development of atherosclerotic plaque. Although CRP was believed to be a marker of vascular inflammation, recent research indicates that it plays an active role in atherogenesis. So in this study we measured serum hs- CRP in patients with essential hypertension and correlated with blood pressure. The study consists of 50 patients with essential hypertension with antihypertensive medications. in the age group of 40 to 60 years of both sexes and 25 normotensive subjects with no history of cardiovascular, neoplastic, hepatic, renal, infectious or auto immune disease. IHEC clearance and informed consent were obtained. hs-CRP was measured by ELISA kit. Our study showed significantly elevated serum hs-CRP level in hypertensive subjects in comparison with control subjects. To find out the relationship between physiological and biochemical parameters with CRP Pearson correlation coefficient has been applied. The level of significance has been fixed as 5% (p<0.05). SPSS15 software has been used for calculation. Our study showed significantly elevated serum hs-CRP level in hypertensive subjects in comparison with control subjects. But there is no correlation of hs-CRP level with both systolic and diastolic pressure. Several studies have shown inflammatory markers such as CRP as an independent determinant of endothelium dependent vascular function among patient with coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients with hypertension. There was no significant correlation was observed between levels of hs-CRP and systolic and diastolic blood pressure in this study but there was a significant elevation hs-CRP level was observed in hypertensive patients.