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Treating Osteoarthritis And Hypertension In A Patient
Osteoarthritis and hypertension (also known as high blood pressure) are highly prevalent among older people in the US, the UK and Canada. As people age, the chances of getting osteoarthritis increase along with the risk of cardiovascular disease. Accordingly substantial number of patients with osteoarthritis is likely to develop hypertension at later stage. |
Anti-inflammatory drugs used for the treatment of osteoarthritis can elevate blood pressure. Health care cost would be avoided and there will be less risk of cardiovascular disease if blood pressure control is not destabilized among hypertensive people taking cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) specific inhibitors (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) used for treatment of osteoarthritis. Data from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) provided the distribution of developing cardiovascular risk factors among American adults with osteoarthritis and high blood pressure. The cardiovascular disease life expectancy model was used to estimate the impact of a 2.26 percent increase in systolic blood pressure on the basis of results of randomized trails comparing COX-2 specific inhibitors. A similar analysis was completed for American adults with osteoarthritis and untreated high blood pressure (>or=140/90 mm Hg). If 7.3 million American people were treated for hypertension, and they would maintain their blood pressure, it would avoid > 30,000 stroke deaths and 2,000 coronary heart disease deaths resulting in >449,000 persons years of life saved and 1.4 billion dollars saved in direct health care costs. When an additional 3.8 million American with untreated hypertension are considered, maintaining blood pressure would prevent >47,000 stroke deaths, 39,000 coronary heart disease deaths, and this would result in 668,000 persons years of life saved and >2.4 billion dollars saved in direct health care costs.
Thus a slight increase in blood pressure among hypertensive Americans with osteoarthritis may not only increase the cost of treatment but also the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases.
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Treating Osteoarthritis And Hypertension In A Patient
