COFFEE CONSUMPTION RELATES TO A REDUCTION OF AORTIC STIFFNESS BUT NOT ON MICROCIRCULATION IN WELL-CONTROLLED HYPERTENSIVES

Abstract

Objective: Nutritional interventions potentially preventing hypertension-related organ damage are far to be fully defined. Coffee is one of the most used beverages all over the world. Many studies tried to define the optimal amount of coffee in order to understand whether coffee has a role in cardiovascular prevention. Thus, we evaluated vascular stiffness in well controlled hypertensives according to coffee consumption. Design and method: We evaluated well-treated 449 patients (225F, 224M, aged 62.56±11.49) with essential hypertension. All patients were checked for organ damage screening including carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), Augmentation Index (AI), and ankle-brachial Index (ABI). To evaluate microcirculation, amydriatic retinography was performed. Arteriolar-to-Venular diameter Ratio (AVR). The number of coffee cups per day was asked during the visit. The median coffee consumption was 2 cups per day. Results: Patients were subdivided into three groups according to tertiles of cups consumed: Group 1, 0-1 cups 148 patients (87F, 61M; 63.66±12.94), Group 2, 2 cups, 159 patients (77F; 82M; 64.75±10.09), Group 3, >2 cups, 142 patients (60F; 82M; 58.96±10.54). No differences highlighted in BMI, in SBP/DBP, in cfPWV and in ABI. On the contrary, aortic stiffness evaluated as AI results significantly decreased in high coffee consumers compared to other groups (ANOVA p<0.0001). In particular, Group 3 was lower than Group 1 (Group 3 9.54±15.48 vs Group 1 17.49 ± 19.56, p<0.05) and (Group 3 9.54±15.48 vs Group 2 15.88 ± 16.57, p<0.05). AVR was higher in less coffee consumers compared to higher (Group 1 0.91 ± 0.10 vs group 3 0.87 ± 0.11, p<0.05), but no difference resulted between Group 2 and 3 or Group 1 and 2. Moreover, AVR did not correlate to Augmentation Index in any group. Conclusions: Coffee consumption may have a role in prevention of aortic remodelling and stiffness. Consumption of at least 3 cups of coffee per day reduces vascular stiffness and increase central vascular compliance, despite this effect is reduced in distal vascular circulation. Our findings need further analysis, mainly to the effects in distal/central hemodynamics due to different drug treatment.