Impact of different antihypertensives on carotid arterial wall thickness.

Abstract

Hypertension has been associated with atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. Carotid intima media thickness is increased in hypertensive patients. But, the correlation between carotid intima media thickness and antihypertensive agents is still uncertain. Therefore, we investigated carotid intima media thickness based on types of antihypertensive agents. 1809 patients were enrolled in this study and it showed that 1079 hypertensive patients had thicker carotid intima media thickness than non-hypertensive patients, with carotid intima media thicknesses of (0.72±17mm vs 0.64±15mm, P<.001), (0.31±0.07mm vs 0.30±0.06mm, P<.001), and (0.41±0.13mm vs 0.35±0.12mm, P<.001). Additionally, hypertensive patients on beta-blockers also had thicker carotid intima media thickness than the non-beta-blocker group, with carotid intima media thicknesses of (0.74±0.18mm vs 0.71±0.16mm, P=.018), (0.33±0.09mm vs 0.31±0.07mm, P=.029), and (0.43±0.13mm vs 0.40±0.13mm, P=.035). Multivariate analysis showed that carotid intima thickness was only correlated with beta-blockers (odds ratio=2.489, confidence interval=1.183-5.239, P=.016); however, this study showed that beta-blocker could be associated with increased carotid wall thickness as well.