Table 1. Characteristics of patients with hypertensive crises recruited in the multicenter Italian study.
| All cohort (n = 1546) | Men (n = 748) | Women (n = 798) | P value | |
| Age (years) | 69.0±14.1 | 66.5±14.5 | 71.4±14.9 | <0.0001 |
| Systolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 203.9±27.4 | 201.7±28.7 | 206.0±26.0 | 0.002 |
| Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg) | 115.2±16.4 | 116.3±16.6 | 114.1±16.2 | 0.007 |
| Plasma creatinine value (mg/dl) | 1.09 (1.0–1.3) | 1.1 (1.1–1.3) | 1.108 (1.0–1.2) | 0.17 |
| Current smokers | 277 (18.0%) | 180 (24.0%) | 97 (13%) | 0.02 |
| Known hypertension | 1117 (77.0%) | 501 (72.1%) | 616 (81.5%) | <0.0001 |
| Patients taking no antihypertensive drug | 118 (10.6%) | 63 (12.6%) | 58 (9.4%) | 0.09 |
| Treatment for hypertension | 0.010 | |||
| None | 280 (25.1%) | 144 (28.8%) | 136 (21.6%) | |
| RAS-inhibitors | 169 (15.1%) | 61 (12.2%) | 108 (17.8%) | |
| Beta-blockers | 48 (4.3%) | 18 (3.7%) | 30 (4.8%) | |
| Calcium-antagonists | 32 (2.9%) | 15 (3.0%) | 17 (2.8%) | |
| Diuretics | 26 (2.3%) | 8 (1.7%) | 18 (2.8%) | |
| Alpha-blockers | 11 (1.1%) | 6 (1.2%) | 5 (1.1%) | |
| Two or more drugs | 551 (49.3%) | 248 (49.5%) | 303 (49.2%) |
Data are either means ± standard deviation or geometric means and interquartile range.