Personality traits and hypertension-mediated organ damage. / Cechy osobowosci a powiklania narzadowe nadcisnienia tetniczego.

OBJECTIVES: Arterial hypertension may lead to the development of organ changes. This study compares different personality traits in hypertensive patients with and without left ventricular hypertrophy and arterial stiffness. METHODS: The study group consisted of 93 subjects (47 males and 46 females) with primary hypertension. Left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) were evaluated and used as markers of cardiac and vascular damage. Personality traits of each patient were assessed using three psychometric tools: NEO-FFI, DS14 and EAS. RESULTS: Patients with increased PWV scored significantly lower than individuals with normal PWVin the following scales: NEO-FFI Neuroticism (18 vs. 27.5; p = 0.018), DS14 Negative affectivity (11.5 vs. 17; p = 0.035) and EAS Fear (10 vs. 13; p = 0.004). Subjects with left ventricular hypertrophy (increased LVMI values) presented lower levels of openness to experience (measured by the NEO-FFI) than persons with normal LVMI values (23 vs. 26; p = 0.027). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that there are significant differences in personality traits between hypertensive patients with and without vascular and cardiac damage.

Sense of coherence and hypertensive target organ damage. / Poczucie koherencji a powiklania narzadowe nadcisnienia tetniczego.

OBJECTIVES: This study was designed to compare the level of sense of coherence in hypertensive patients with arterial stiffness or leftventricular hypertrophy and in hypertensive individuals without such health complications. METHODS: The study group consisted of 93 participants. All of them were asked to undergo the following procedures: clinical assessment, echocardiography (to diagnose hypertensive cardiac damage), pulse wave velocity measurement (to assess vascular damage) and psychological testing (to measure their level of comprehensibility, manageability, meaningfulness, and sense of coherence). RESULTS: Patients with hypertensive vascular damage (high pulse wave velocity) had higher levels of comprehensibility and sense of coherence than other hypertensive subjects. At the same time, there were no significant differences in the level of sense of coherence (and all of its dimensions) between individuals with and people without hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest, that the sense of coherence may not be strongly associated with good somatic health. They may also contribute to the discussion about diagnostic usefulness of the SOC-29 method as a single tool. We believe that the level of sense of coherence should be taken into consideration in further studies on the development of hypertensive TOD.