The Prevalence of Pseudo-resistant Hypertension Using the Direct Observed Therapy Test: A Prospective Observational Study

High blood pressure is a risk factor for bad clinical events, such as heart failure, stroke, kidney failure and death. This risk is much higher in those with 'resistant' hypertension, in whom the blood pressure remains high despite more than 3 blood pressure medicines. Current estimates of the proportion of individuals with resistant hypertension may be an overestimate, since some of them are not actually adherent (i.e. not taking the medicines they are prescribed). Methods to detect non-adherence, such as asking the patient, counting pills, and getting records from pharmacy are not fool proof. Direct observed therapy (where patients are administered medicines under observation by a health care personnel) is quite useful to diagnose this, and is the standard of care in the Renal Hypertension Clinic, before more tests and interventions (such as CT scans, renal angiogram) are performed.

In this study, the investigators will measure the proportion of patients with resistant hypertension who are non-adherent based on direct observed therapy, and follow them up to examine the impact of this diagnosis.