Predictors of incident hypertension in healthy non-diabetic postmenopausal women with normal renal function

Introduction: We aimed to investigate the incidence of hypertension and to identify potential risk factors in healthy, non-diabetic recently postmenopausal Greek women with normal renal function.Patients and methods: This retrospective cohort study evaluated 141 recently postmenopausal women at baseline and annually thereafter (follow-up time: 1 to 8 years). Blood samples were obtained, and ultrasound evaluations were performed at baseline. A detailed medical history, anthropometric parameters, blood pressure and cardiovascular risk factors were recorded for every woman at each visit. Incident hypertension was defined as the first occurrence of office systolic or diastolic blood pressure, measured at 2 different visits within 2 months or history of initiation of antihypertensive medication.Results: Incident hypertension was diagnosed in 30 out of 141 women (21.3%). The median time to incident hypertension was 3.5 years. Adiposity, elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels, insulin resistance and parity were positively associated with incident hypertension. In multivariate analysis, however, obesity and insulin resistance were the only statistically significant variables associated with more than 3-fold and 2-fold respectively increased risk of incident hypertension (HOMA-IR, O.R = 1.988, p-value =.043; obesity, O.R = 3.746, p-value =.019).Conclusion: A significant proportion of women entering the menopause present incident hypertension and this is mostly associated with obesity and insulin resistance.