Hypercholesterolaemia alters arterial and blood factors related to atherosclerosis in hypertension.
To evaluate the influence of hypercholesterolaemia on arterial and blood factors related to cardiovascular disease in hypertension, 20 normocholesterolaemic and 31 hypercholesterolaemic hypertensive patients underwent determinations of whole blood filterability (WBF), plasma fibrinogen concentration (PF) and aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV). Both of the groups had similar age, body mass index, cumulative smoking dose and blood pressure. Hypercholesterolaemics had lower WBF (P less than 0.02), higher PF (P less than 0.02) and higher PWV (P less than 0.01) than normocholesterolaemics. In the whole population WBF correlated with age (P less than 0.005), mean blood pressure (P less than 0.01), total cholesterol (P less than 0.05) and plasma fibrinogen (P less than 0.01). However, in a multivariate analysis where age and pressure were controlled as variables, only the association between WBF and PF remained significant (P less than 0.001). Thus, the higher fibrinogen affects whole blood filterability in hypercholesterolaemic hypertensive patients. In the whole population PWV correlated positively with HDL cholesterol (P less than 0.01) and age (P less than 0.001) and the association with HDL cholesterol remained significant in a multivariate analysis (P less than 0.001) where age was controlled. The effect of ageing on arterial rigidity seems to be similar in both hypertensive groups as deduced from the identical regression slopes relating pulse wave velocity to age. So in hypertension with high cholesterol, arterial rigidity was increased without changes in arterial stiffening with age.
Levenson
J
J
Centre de Médecine Préventive Cardio-vasculaire and INSERM U28, Hôpital Broussais, Paris, France.
Del Pino
M
M
Razavian
M
M
Merli
I
I
Filitti
V
V
Simon
A
A
D001011:Aorta / Q000503:physiopathology; D001158:Arteries; D001161:Arteriosclerosis / Q000097:blood* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001790:Blood Physiological Phenomena; D005260:Female; D005340:Fibrinogen / Q000032:analysis; D005374:Filtration; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006973:Hypertension / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D012044:Regression Analysis
D005340:Fibrinogen