[Cardiovascular disease in hypertension: gender differences in 100,000 clinical records]

To examine the type of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and treatment and achievement of treatment goals in blood pressure and lipids in hypertensive patients in primary care.

A cross-sectional study of all medical records of hypertensive patients, from which patients with antihypertensive treatment who visited the 25 Primary Health Care Centers of the 6(th) sanitary district of Madrid during 2008 were selected.

From a total of 92,079 patients, 19,501 (21 2%) with an arterial hypertension had a previous diagnosis of CVD (23.9% in males and 19.1% in females). In hypertensive with CVD, the most frequent diagnosis and their proportion in males and females were: ischemic heart disease 35.6% (43.7%/27.6%), atrial fibrillation 29.5% (25%/33.9%), stroke 24% (22%/26.7%), chronic renal disease 15.7% (18.2%/13.2%), heart failure 15.3% (10.4%/20.2%) and peripheral artery disease 7.5% (8.7%/6.4%) (P<.05). Antihypertensive drugs, lipid-lowering drugs and antiplatelet therapy were used more often by males, with women predominating in the prescription of diuretics and angiotensin receptor blockers and anticoagulants, (P<.05).The proportion of patients with blood pressure<140/90 mmHg was 60.5% and 59.1%, and that of LDL-cholesterol <100mg/ dl was 40.4% y 31% (P<.005), in males and females, respectively.

In almost all the 20,000 patients with CVD studied, substantial gender differences in the prevalence, therapy and achievements of goals in the different types of CVD were observed. These results suggest the convenience of homogenization of the computerized registries at the present, for monitoring results over time, with no need of continuous sampling-based studies.