[Autoimmune inflammation and heterogeneity of arterial hypertension in rheumatic patients]

The lecture presented hereinafter deals with the present-day evidence concerning interrelationships between arterial hypertension and immune inflammation in rheumatic diseases. The development of arterial hypertension, atherosclerosis, and chronic cardiac insufficiency (heart failure) in autoimmune processes is conditioned by not only classical risk factors but also by immunoinflammatory pathogenetic mechanisms of these diseases. Recently, there have appeared reports concerning the interrelationship between the activity of rheumatic diseases and the character and progression of arterial hypertension, as well as detecting elevated contents of CRP and some other cytokines, particularly tumour necrosis factor-alpha, in blood of hypertensive patients.