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Homocysteine and risk of developing hypertension in men

Journal of Human Hypertension volume 20, pages 631–634 (2006)Cite this article

In cross-sectional studies, elevated homocysteine levels are associated with higher blood pressure, but it remains unclear whether plasma homocysteine is a risk factor for hypertension. In a prospective nested case-control study, participants who developed hypertension ( n =396) had significantly higher levels of baseline plasma homocysteine (12.6  μ mol/l) than matched controls (11.8  μ mol/l, P =0.03); compared to those in the lowest quintile, those in the highest quintile had a crude relative risk (RR) of 1.56 (95% confidence interval (CI), 0.98–2.48; P for trend=0.10) and a multivariable RR of 1.63 (95% CI, 0.97–2.74; P for trend=0.13). Higher plasma homocysteine levels at baseline were associated with an increased but non-significant risk of incident hypertension that was minimally affected by multivariable adjustment.

Hypertension is a common, chronic condition and most cases have an unclear etiology.1 In cross-sectional studies, higher plasma homocysteine levels are associated with higher levels of systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP),2, 3 but it remains unclear as to whether this relationship extends to the development of hypertension.4, 5 Therefore, we used a prospective nested case–control study design to evaluate whether higher plasma homocysteine levels at baseline are associated with an increased risk of developing hypertension among men free of cardiovascular disease (CVD) at baseline and followed prospectively for 17.5 years.

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Acknowledgements

Dr Bowman is supported by a Career Development Award from the Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program. This work was supported by grants CA-34944, CA-40360, HL-26490 and HL-34595 from the National Institutes of Health, along with Scientist Development Grant No. 0130290N from the American Heart Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, Massachusetts Veterans Affairs Epidemiology, Research, and Information Center, Boston, MA, USA

    T S Bowman, J M Gaziano & H D Sesso

  2. Department of Medicine, Divisions of Aging, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    T S Bowman, J M Gaziano & H D Sesso

  3. Department of Medicine, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    J M Gaziano, M J Stampfer & H D Sesso

  4. Department of Medicine, Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    M J Stampfer

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    M J Stampfer & H D Sesso

Authors
  1. T S Bowman
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  2. J M Gaziano
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  3. M J Stampfer
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  4. H D Sesso
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to T S Bowman.

Additional information

An abstract of this work was presented at the American Heart Association Epidemiology section national meeting on 2 May 2005 in Washington, DC.

The authors report no significant conflict of interest.

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Bowman, T., Gaziano, J., Stampfer, M. et al. Homocysteine and risk of developing hypertension in men. J Hum Hypertens 20, 631–634 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.jhh.1002052

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