Plasma Lipids and Correlated Risk Factors

This case-control study was designed to describe the plasma lipid profile of newly diagnosed Black African hypertensive subjects and normotensive controls, to compare the plasma lipid levels of hypertensive subjects with age- and sex-matched normotensive controls and to determine the relationship between total cholesterol and biophysical/demographic parameters. The study showed that both hypertensives and controls had mean lipid and lipoprotein levels at the lower level of the generally accepted cut-off point. Hypertensives also had higher Body Mass Index; Waist to Hip Ratio; Total Cholesterol (TC) and Triglyceride (TG) than the controls. These findings are to assist health practitioners; especially primary care physicians, the first point of call for most hypertensive patients whose conditions are often diagnosed during routine clinical contact for other conditions especially in a low resource country like Nigeria. This will ensure that attention is paid towards identification of risk factors and attempt made to modify them rather than commencing drug treatment of hypertension as soon as it is detected.