Heart failure, major cause of sudden death in hypertensive patients at LASUTH —Experts

Heart failure is the cause of sudden unexpected death in seven out of every 10 persons who had hypertension as the underlying illness, brought-in-dead at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja.

In a study, researchers said hypertensive heart disease was recorded in 44 per cent of all cases of persons brought into the hospital dead and 4.3 per cent of all hospital deaths.

They said that most deaths occurred in the fifth decade among the males and sixth decade among the female gender, while the third decade is the least common age group.

The 6-year retrospective autopsy study of 477 deaths (44 per cent) pateints brought into the hospital dead as a result of hypertensive heart disease were seen between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2015.

The 2019 study in the Nigeria Medical Journal included Dr Francis Adedayo Faduyile at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja in conjunction with Sunday Sokunle Soyemi, Daniel Ayodele Sanni and Kikelomo Ololade Wright.

Acute left ventricular heart failure (67.8 per cent) was the most common cause of sudden death as a result of hypertension, followed by stroke and myocardial infarction was the least common (1.7 per cent).

The trio of ventricular heart failure, congestive cardiac failure, and stroke were the most common causes of death in all age groups. There was no relationship with the cause of death with regard to the age of patients.

In the female gender, sudden deaths were most common in the 6th decade and in the male gender most sudden deaths were seen in the 5th decade.

The researchers said suggested these complications of hypertension seen in younger people in Nigeria unlike in developed countries are the sequela of the untreated and poorly treated hypertension.

Hypertension is becoming a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa at large and there is dearth of studies on sudden unexpected deaths as a result of hypertension.

The overall prevalence of hypertension was put at 18.4 per cent for Nigeria compared with a prevalence of 10.35 per cent for Ethiopia and 23.0 per cent for Ghana.