Correlation study of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein with risk factors and target organ damage in hypertensive patients

Abstract

Objective To explore the correlation of high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) with risk factors and target organ damage in hypertensive patients.Methods The levels of serum hs-CRP of 216 hypertensive cases (hypertension group) and 36 healthy subjects (control group) were tested and compared among different associated diseases, the number of involved target organ and the difference of involved target organ.The relativity between variables such as total cholesterol, high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), left ventricular mass index (LVMI) and so on and hs-CRP was analyzed by linear correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis.Results The levels of serum hs-CRP in hypertension group were higher than those in control group[( 1.99 ± 0.34) mg/L vs.( 1.10 ± 0.26 ) mg/L](P ＜ 0.01 ).The levels of serum hs-CRP in hypertension combined with coronarv disease and hvoertension combined with diabetes mellitus[(2.39 ± 0.24), (2.10 ± 0.18 ) mg/L, respectively]were higher than those in simple hypertension[( 1.85 ± 0.30 ) mg/L], and the levels of serum hs-CRP in hypertension combined with coronary disease were higher than those in hypertension combined with diabetes mellitus, and there were significant difference (P ＜ 0.05 ).The levels of serum hs-CRP were positively correlated with the number of involved target organ (r =0.747,P ＜0.01 ).There were significant differences among different associated diseases.The levels of serum hs-CRP in hypertension combined with left ventricle thickening were higher than those in hypertension combined with carotid atherosclerosis, renal damage and diabetic retinopathy,and there were significant differences (P ＜ 0.05 ).There was no significant difference in the level of serum hs-CRP between hypertension combined with carotid atherosclerosis and hypertension combined with renal damage (P ＞ 0.05 ).Stepwise regression analysis showed that the dominating factors of the level of serum hs-CRP were LVMI, age and HDL-C, and the level of hs-CRP showed negative correlation with HDL-C.Conclusions The levels of serum hs-CRP in hypertensive patients are higher than those in healthy subjects.The more number of involved target organ, the higher levels of serum hs-CRP.Patients with different involved target organ have different inflammatory degree.The levels of serum hs-CRP in hypertension combined with coronary disease are higher than those in hypertension combined with diabetes mellitus.Stepwise regression analysis shows that the dominating factors for hs-CRP levels are LVMI, HDL-C and age. Key words: C-reactive protein; Hypertension; Target-organ damage