Do Calcium Channel Blockers Play A Role For Preventing...

Title: Do Calcium Channel Blockers play a role in preventing Hypertensive Encephalopathy? A- Study aim To identify the risk factors for hypertensive encephalopathy amongst patients seen in the Emergency Department (ED) and assess whether calcium channel blockers play a role in preventing hypertensive encephalopathy. B- Background and significance Hypertension is a very common problem, affecting 1 billion people worldwide, with 50 million cases in the United States, and one third of cases going undiagnosed. 1% of the cases will experience a hypertensive emergency in their life. (1,2) Although 1% is not a high number, the complications for that percentage are very costly and disable things like End Stage renal disease, Stroke, and†¦show more content†¦The symptoms are usually reversible with adequate and prompt control of the blood pressure. (6) The aim of the study is to identify if patients on CCB have less of a chance of developing hypertensive encephalopathy than those treated with different antihypertensive medications. Calcium channel blockers are a group of medications used to treat Hypertension, and also used as prophylactic treatments for migraines. They interfere with calcium influx to the arterial wall, which cause arterial dilatation and relaxation of the arteries and hence lowers blood pressure. Nicardipine is one of the CCB’s used commonly in treating stroke patients with very high and uncontrolled hypertension. (6) â€Å"Nicardipine crosses the blood brain barrier which binds to the calcium-channels of the L-type, acting primarily at the level of the hippocampus (7). Intravenous Nicardipine has been shown to reduce both cardiac and cerebral ischemia(8).† We want to observe if the patient treated with calcium channel blockers medication as outpatient home medication has less hypertensive encephalopathy complications. Moreover, we went to test if calcium channel blockers play any protective role against patients developing hypertensive encephalopathy. C- Innovation of this study There is multiple studies about the use of CCB’s in treating Hypertensive emergencies, one study in 1985 shows that CCB’s and specifically the Nicardipine could be used as first line drug in management