Hypertension promotes coronary calcium deposit in asymptomatic men

Despite its important role in coronary disease, coronary atherosclerosis has been poorly investigated in uncomplicated hypertension. Therefore, we evaluated the presence and amount (score) of coronary calcium with ultrafast computed tomography in 73 pairs of age-matched asymptomatic hypertensive or normotensive men. We also estimated the extent of peripheral atherosclerosis as the number of arterial sites (carotid, aortic, femoral) with echographic plaque. Compared with normotensive men, hypertensive men had more frequent coronary calcium (63% versus 47%), a higher calcium score (57 +/- 111 versus 18 +/- 38), and an odds ratio of calcium deposit of 1.95 (with confidence intervals [CI] 95%, 1.01 to 3.79) for any score and of 2.38 (95% CI, 1.02 to 5.52) or 4.84 (95% CI, 1.53 to 15.3) for scores above 50 or 100, respectively. Hypertensive men showed correlations of calcium score with age and hypertension duration but not with the height of blood pressure, and the odds ratio of calcium deposit between extensive and minor peripheral atherosclerosis was 4.67 (95% CI, 1.41 to 15.45) for any score and 8.63 (95% CI, 2.10 to 35.5) or 8.13 (95% CI, 1.64 to 40.3) for scores above 50 or 100. Thus, high blood pressure and in particular its duration rather than its value promotes the presence and overall extent of coronary calcium, a potential predictor of sudden coronary death, in parallel with the extent of peripheral atherosclerosis. The mechanisms of the interaction of hypertension and coronary calcification may be multifactorial and not specific to hypertension.