"INFLUENCE OF NSAIDS ON BLOOD PRESSURE IN HYPERTENSIVE PATIENTS UNDER TREATMENT: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY"

Raised blood pressure is one of the leading risk factors for global mortality and is estimated to have caused 9.4 million deaths. There are chances of using anti-hypertensives and NSAIDs together with increasing age for a long time to treat many diseases.The objective of this study was to determine the change in blood pressure in hypertensive patients on Anti-hypertensives after consumption of NSAIDs. The cross-sectional analytical study was conducted for a period of 6 months.In our study out of 70 NSAID users, 55.71% were males and 44.29% were females and from 140 NSAID non users, 61.43% were males and 38.57% were females.26.67% of patients were having Diabetes mellitus as a comorbid condition along with hypertension.From all the covariates studied, light physical activity was 1.44 and moderate physical activity was 1.06 times more likely to have this influence than vigorous physical activity. A difference of 3.67mmHg in systolic blood pressure was noted between NSAID users and non-users.When comparing Amlodipine, Enalapril and Telmisartan, Telmisartan was the only drug that showed a significant difference in blood pressure after consumption of NSAIDs i.e, 8.35mmHg .Mostly prescribed NSAIDs were Diclofenac followed by Etoricoxib and Aspirin . We found that NSAIDs may increase blood pressure and may blunt the effects of many anti-hypertensives. The small increase in systolic blood pressure associated with NSAIDs seen in this study may not affect a physician’s decision to change the therapy, however in long term, such an increase would be associated with significant comorbidity consequences