Patient was educated on long term effects of unresolved hypertension as follows:
- Heart failure
- Chronic elevated blood pressure resists smooth pumping of blood from the heart, resulting in increased back-up of blood in the heart chambers.
- This obstruction to blood flow with increased back-up, increases the workload on the heart, forcing the heart to work harder.
- Increased workload on the heart progressively weakens the heart muscle, resulting in heart failure.
- Also, progressively worsening coronary artery disease can gradually compromise blood supply to the heart muscle, resulting in diminishing heart function and contribute to heart failure.
- Aneurysm development
- Damaged blood vessels due to inflammation can become progressively weak.
- Weakened blood vessels, secondary to consistently elevated blood pressure, can result in bulging out of blood vessels at these weak spots, resulting in development of aneurysm.
- An aneurysm carries the potential to rupture and cause life-threatening internal bleeding.
- Hemorrhagic Stroke
- Progressive damage to blood vessels in the brain due to unresolved elevated blood pressure can weaken the blood vessel and result in bursting of the blood vessels.
- Bursting of blood vessels in the brain result in development of stroke, compromising supply of oxygenated blood to the brain.
- Depending on the site of injury in the brain, various functions controlled by brain, such as, thinking, memory, speaking, ambulation, could be affected due to stroke.
