Plasma triglycerides and 24 hour urinary sodium excretion in elderly hypertensives. A pathogenetic connection?

Hypertension among the elderly generally represents a salt- sensitive state. However this salt-sensitivity does not appear to result from age-related increase in either sodium or salt intake. Since 20 years new trends seem to relate the role of sodium in the genesis of hypertension to a primary abnormality of electrolyte transport of cell membrane. Lipid abnormalities have also been described in untreated patients with high blood pressure. Plasma triglycerides were considerably higher (p < 0.01) in the hypertensives than in the controls. 24 hour sodium excretion was significantly lower (p < 0.0001) in hypertensives than in the controls. We have found a strong correlation among reduced sodium excretion, higher triglycerides and elevated blood pressure in the elderly. The blood pressure correlated negatively with 24 hour sodium excretion (p < 0.0001 for systolic and p < 0.002 for diastolic) and positively with plasma triglycerides (p < 0.0001 for systolic and p < 0.001 for diastolic). The poor literature regarding an association of these two alterations in human hypertensives makes our results provocative. We speculated that these alterations may be a facet of the insulin resistance commonly detectable in human hypertensives. However, further investigations are required to answer to this intriguing hypothesis.