Background: Diabetes is most commonly associated with aortic stiffness, but the importance of nondiabetic glucometabolic status for aortic stiffness (AS) in hypertension patients is unclear.
Methods: We included 1065 hypertension patients without diabetes in a cohort study. Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) > 10 m/s can broadly be defined as AS. Pearson correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis are used to reveal the relationship between elevated fasting blood glucose (FBG) and AS.
Results: The 1065 hypertension patients (mean age 60 years) included 48% male, 22% smokers, 94.3% with anti-hypertensive drugs, 17.9% with AS, 80% with abdominal obesity, 42% with elevated triglycerides (TG), and 27% with elevated FBG. The mean values for office systolic blood pressure (SBP)/diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and central SBP/DBP were 130/85mmHg and 132/86mmHg. Mean cfPWV was 8.7m/s. Multiple regression analysis revealed that age, office SBP, and elevated FBG were independently related to AS in the whole hypertension. Elevated FBG had 1.6-fold risk of AS in hypertension patients compared with below the cutoff. In subgroup analysis, elevated FBG increased 2.68-fold risk for AS in those without metabolic syndrome (MS), not in MS. The area under curve (AUC) of office SBP was higher than central SBP for AS in receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.
Conclusion: We found that elevated FBG was an independent risk factor for AS in hypertension patients without MS, although there was a high proportion of abdominal obesity. Office SBP was better than central SBP to assess AS in community hypertension.
Keywords: aortic stiffness, hypertension, elevated plasma blood glucose, carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity