Journal of Clinical Medicine

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Dear Colleagues,

Arterial hypertension is a leading healthcare concern worldwide, estimated to affect 45% of the world’s adult population. Since 1990, arterial hypertension has been the leading cause of death and disability-adjusted life years globally. It is a major risk factor for death related to cardiovascular disease, with only cigarette smoking approaching or surpassing it in significance, depending on the population studied.

Although the data from epidemiologic studies may seem bleak or pessimistic, it has long been known that arterial hypertension is a modifiable risk factor—with the implementation of proper preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic measures, it can be effectively controlled, and the risk it presents can be mitigated. Even today, novel pharmacologic (i.e., direct aldosterone synthase inhibitors) and nonpharmacologic (i.e., renal denervation) treatment modalities for arterial hypertension are being developed due to insights into the micro and macrocellular pathophysiologic mechanisms that lead to the clinical picture of arterial hypertension. However, a significant portion of the population remains affected by arterial hypertension, which is underserved, undiagnosed and left untreated due to the gaps in the “net that we cast” on our patient population in order to make an early diagnosis. Therefore, insights into both the epidemiologic picture of specific patient populations and novel pathophsyiologic mechanisms indicated to play a part in arterial hypertension (i.e., diet, psychologic stress, aerial pollution, etc.) are needed and welcomed in order to improve our understanding of this major healthcare issue.

This Special Issue invites the submission of original research articles and reviews that cover all biological aspects of arterial hypertension, with an emphasis on studies improving our understanding of the pathophysiology of arterial hypertension in both the general population and specific vulnerable patient populations. Short communications regarding preliminary but significant results will also be considered.

We look forward to your submissions and cordially invite you to contribute to this Special Issue and become part of the fight against the insidious, deadly and silent disease that is arterial hypertension.

You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Biology.

Dr. Ingrid Prkačin
Dr. Tomislav Bulum
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

arterial hypertension
resistant hypertension
secondary hypertension
prevention and screening of hypertension
hypertensive crisis
treatment of hypertension
obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome
pathophsyiology of hypertension
hypertension and the environment
(pre)hypertension and genetics

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

12 pages, 1563 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Patients with Type 2 Diabetes, Higher Blood Pressure, and Infrequent Fundus Examinations Have a Higher Risk of Sight-Threatening Retinopathy

by Martina Tomić, Romano Vrabec, Spomenka Ljubić, Ingrid Prkačin and Tomislav Bulum

J. Clin. Med. 2024, 13(9), 2496; https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm13092496 - 24 Apr 2024

Viewed by 298

Abstract

Background: Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is the most common cause of preventable blindness among working-age adults. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of the regularity of fundus examinations and risk factor control in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) on the prevalence and severity of DR. Methods: One hundred and fifty-six T2DM patients were included in this cross-sectional study. Results: In this sample, the prevalence of DR was 46.2%. Patients with no DR mainly did not examine the fundus regularly, while most patients with mild/moderate nonproliferative DR (NPDR) underwent a fundus examination regularly. In 39.7% of patients, this was the first fundus examination due to diabetes, and 67% of them had sight-threatening DR (STDR). Diabetes duration (p = 0.007), poor glycemic control (HbA₁c) (p = 0.006), higher systolic blood pressure (SBP) (p < 0.001), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (p = 0.002) were the main predictors of DR. However, the impact of SBP (AOR 1.07, p = 0.003) and DBP (AOR 1.13, p = 0.005) on DR development remained significant even after adjustment for diabetes duration and HbA₁c. The DR prevalence was higher in patients with higher blood pressure (≥130/80 mmHg) than in those with target blood pressure (<130/80 mmHg) (p = 0.043). None of the patients with target blood pressure had STDR. The peaks in SBP and DBP were observed in T2DM with DR and the first fundus examination due to diabetes. Conclusions: In this T2DM sample, DR prevalence was very high and strongly related to blood pressure and a lack of regular fundus examinations. These results indicate the necessity of establishing systematic DR screening in routine diabetes care and targeting blood pressure levels according to T2DM guidelines. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Pathophysiology of Hypertension and Related Diseases)

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