Hypertension (HTN) or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and diastolic. Normal blood pressure is at or below 120/80 mmHg. The first figure is the systolic blood pressure, the pressure in the arteries when your heart is contracting. The second, or lower figure, is the diastolic blood pressure, which is the pressure in your arteries between heart beats. High blood pressure is anything above 140/90 mmHg. Hypertension is the opposite of hypotension. Hypertension is classified as either primary (essential) hypertension or secondary hypertension; about 90–95% of cases are categorized as "primary hypertension," which means high blood pressure with no obvious medical cause. The remaining 5–10% of cases (Secondary hypertension) are caused by other conditions that affect the kidneys, arteries, heart or endocrine system.
Persistent hypertension is one of the risk factors for stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure and arterial aneurysm, and is a
