Hypertension

[mdfirst]

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I know i should probably know the answer to this, but do cardiologist treat hypertension much, or is that left up to Nephrologist and Internal Primary Care?

 

[howelljolly]

They'd treat it if its a comorbidity with CAD or CHF. But essential or isolated HTN is usually managed by medicine or nephrology. Some cardiologists choose to specialize in preventative cardiology, or have a significant primary care focus, and Id suspect they see quite a bit of HTN.

 

[dragonfly99]

Agree with the above.
Most garden variety HTN can be managed by internists and family doc types, and it is.
For really badass HTN unresponsive to multiple meds, or otherwise atypical, the "HTN specialist" docs (or special HTN clinic, which we had @ the med center where I did residency) may be run either by cardiologists or nephrologists. It seems like nephrology more often, but @my hospital it was basically run by a couple of cardiologists (the noninterventional types).

 

[astropilot]

I know i should probably know the answer to this, but do cardiologist treat hypertension much, or is that left up to Nephrologist and Internal Primary Care?

It depends on where they trained. If they trained at a fellowship that believes in cardioVASCULAR medicine, then some interventionalist might place a renal artery stent (places like Oschner teach this). There is a lot of mixed feelings about this. Yes, you can shower plaque emboli into the kidney, but off-label use of devices to catch emboli are being used to reduce this risk.

Personally, I don't think I will be seeing any patients specifically for HTN....most internist can handle this. However, if they come to me for any other issue, you better believe me I will be dictating treatment for HTN.

ap