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Results of a 14-year prospective study suggest, that abnormal levels of plasma total cholesterol (TC), non-high density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) and the TC/HDL-C ratio are independently associated with a subsequent increased risk of incident hypertension in men.
A recently reported study by Dr. Howard D. Sesso and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston showing that dyslipidemia is linked to development of hypertension in women. For the current study, to be reported in the January issue of Hypertension and released online December 12, the team conducted a similar analysis using data from the Physicians’ Health Study.
The study included 3110 male physicians between the ages of 40 and 84 with previous cholesterol measurements and no history of cerebrovascular or cardiovascular disease, including hypertension, and who had not been treated for hypercholesterolemia.
During median follow-up of 14.1 years, 1019 of the men developed hypertension. After adjusting for age, BMI, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, parental history of MI before age 60, and diabetes, men in the highest quintile of TC had a 23% increased risk of hypertension compared with the lowest quintile (p for trend = 0.0067). Those in the highest quintile of non-HDL-C had a 39% increased risk compared with the lowest quintile (p for trend = 0.0001).
Moreover, those in the quintile with the highest calculated TC/HDL-C ratio were 54% more likely to develop hypertension (p for trend < 0.0001).
"Elevated lipid levels appear to predate the onset of hypertension by years," Dr. Sesso’s group notes. They suggest that the relationship may be mediated by atherogenic lipid abnormalities contributing to a dysfunctional endothelium, and that hypertension may be a manifestation of the atherosclerotic process.
"By identifying potential risk factors amenable to intervention, we may eventually be able to reduce the burden of hypertension and subsequent cardiovascular disease," they conclude.
Hypertension 2006;47.