Relationship between blood lipid and arterial stiffness in hypertension

To explore the relationship between blood lipids and pulse wave velocity (PWV).

We retrospectively selected subjects who had undergone treatment in an outpatient or inpatient clinic. The subjects were sub-grouped into four groups: Group A (no history of hypertension and dyslipidemia), Group B (a history of dyslipidemia but not hypertension), Group C (a history of hypertension but not dyslipidemia) and Group D (a history of both hypertension and dyslipidemia). We determined brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), atherogenic index of plasma (AIP), non-high-density lipoprotein (non-HDL-C), total cholesterol/high density lipoprotein (TC/HDL-C) and atherogenic indices (AI) for hypertension and non-hypertension and dyslipidemia and non-dyslipidemia patients.

A total of 380 subjects were included. Uric acid, systolic pressure, diastolic pressure, pulse pressure and mean arterial pressure were significantly different among the groups. The prevalence of coronary arterial disease and diabetes mellitus, age, body mass index, heart rate, blood glucose, creatinine, urea, smoking history and alcohol consumption did not differ among groups. The baPWV was significantly different between both hypertension/nonhypertension and dyslipidemia/non-dyslipidemia patients. In hypertension patients (in Group C and D), partial correlation analysis showed that ΔbaPWV correlated with TC, HDL-C, AI, AIP and TC/HDL-C but not LDL-C, triglyceride (TG) or non-HDL-C.

Hypertension and/or dyslipidemia may be risk factors for arterial stiffness. In hypertension patients, TC, HDL-C, AIP, AI and TC/HDL-C might correlate to arterial stiffness and pathological increases in these levels may indicate risk factors for arterial stiffness.