Prevalence of hypertension among obese and non-obese patients with coronary artery disease.

Globally,obesity is now recognised as an epidemic. the degree of obesity is proportional to the rate of development of cardiovascular diseases,hence,resulting in a dramatic increase in morbidity and mortality. apart from obesity,hypertension is another well recognised risk factor contributing to coronary artery disease (cad). the precise prevalence of obesity-related hypertension varies with age,race and gender; and is yet unknown in our population. the objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of hypertension in obese and non-obese patients with diagnosed cad. this hospital based descriptive study was conducted in cardiology department of postgraduate medical institute,lady reading hospital,peshawar from 15th march 2007 to 30th may 2008. a total of 200 patients with diagnosed cad were enrolled,100 were found obese and 100 non-obese. among these,a total of 111 (55.5%) were found to be hypertensive,66 (59.46%) of these were obese and 45 (40.54%) non-obese (p=0.003). obese patients with cad had significantly more frequent hypertension.