Study finds strong links of Epistaxis with high blood pressure

Republic of Korea: The patients with epistaxis or nosebleed have high blood pressure (BP) at presentation, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine. Also, such patients had a higher proportion of newly diagnosed hypertension within 6 months.

Epistaxis is more common in hypertensive patients, perhaps owing to vascular fragility from long-standing disease.

Hypertension, however, is rarely a direct cause of epistaxis. More commonly, epistaxis and the associated anxiety may cause an acute elevation of blood pressure.

Chsngsun Kim, Sahmyook Medical Center, Republic of Korea, and colleagues aimed to investigate whether high blood pressure and hypertension are associated with epistaxis.

The researchers performed a retrospective study with a propensity score matching analysis at the emergency departments (EDs) of a tertiary university hospital. 

The mean blood pressure (BP, systolic and diastolic) and proportion of subjects with elevated BP (systolic >120 and/or diastolic >80 mmHg) at presentation were compared between the epistaxis group and matched control group. Also, the proportion of patients with newly diagnosed hypertension within six months between the two groups was compared.