Nearly one in two adults have hypertension – or high blood pressure, and only one in four people have controlled blood pressure. This places millions of Americans at increased risk for heart disease and stroke, the first and fifth leading causes of death in the United States.

Why Choose UHealth?

The University of Miami Comprehensive Hypertension Center is the the only American Heart Association certified comprehensive center in Florida.

The team offers a unique and highly effective process to evaluate cardiovascular risk and establish a timely and specific diagnosis and treatment plans for our hypertensive patients. Every patient is evaluated through 4 pillars (Genetic, Biochemical, Physiological, and Environmental) that give rise to the patient's blood pressure phenotype, and their risk and therapeutic profiles.

 

At the Comprehensive Hypertension Center, we perform cardiovascular risk assessments that include:

• Quantitative echocardiography
• Exercise testing
• Ankle-brachial index
• Carotid doppler
• Evaluation of autonomic function

Diagnostic evaluation services include:

• Renal angiography
• Doppler renal ultrasound
• CT angiography
• MR angiography
• Adrenal vein sampling for aldosterone

Interventions include:

• Renal angioplasty with/without stenting
• Laparoscopic adrenalectomy
• Sleep lab

Our team

The team is led by Center Founder and Director Maria Delgado-Lelievre, M.D., Efren Morales Chavez, M.D., Yelena Drexler, M.D., Alessia Fornoni, M.D. (HTN-nephrology), Gabriel Contreras M.D. (HTN-nephrology), and Murry Drescher, M.D., along with a strong multidisciplinary team that includes cardiologists, neurologists, electrophysiologists, stem cell researchers, surgeons, psychologists, and more experts from across the health system.

Our mission

• First, control blood pressure and reduce blood pressure burden through effective hypertension awareness, treatment, and control.
• Second, develop and support hypertension-related research and education that will lead to medical discovery and advancement in hypertension disease.
• Third, leadership in developing innovative ways to impact national and global health by reducing high blood pressure and its complications.

Hypertension Center certification is granted by the American Heart Association (AHA).

The AHA is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. AHA provides science-based treatment guidelines for healthcare professionals to help them give quality care to their patients, including guidelines for treatment of patients with hypertension. Learn more about the certification.

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Request an appointment

Patients can call us at 305-243-5554 to make an appointment or request an in-person or virtual visit online.

Refer a patient

To refer your patient for an appointment with one of our specialists, we have a number of options available for your convenience:

1. Phone: 844-900-UMMD (8663)
2. Online: Complete and submit the online form.
3. Fax: Print a UHealth Patient Referral Form and fax to 305-243-9772.
4. Email: Print a UHealth Patient Referral Form, scan, and email to ummd@miami.edu