Role of Divalent Cations in Pathophysiology of Essential Hypertension

Abstract

Introduction: Essential hypertension (EHTN) accounts for 95% of all cases of hypertension affecting approximately one billion individuals worldwide. Alteration in trace elements like calcium and magnesium can be helpful in knowing the elemental involvement in the pathophysiology of EHTN and its associated complications. Aims and Objectives: To estimate serum levels of calcium and magnesium in patients of EHTN and compare it with normotensive healthy subjects. To find the correlation of serum levels of calcium and magnesium with systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) in patients of EHTN. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in 100 subjects, out of which 50 were essential hypertensive patients (cases) and 50 were normotensive healthy subjects (controls), within the age group of 25-65 years. Serum calcium and magnesium were measured by using the auto analyzer Beckman Coulter DXC 600. The results were analysed by using students ‘t’ test and pearson’s correlation. Results: Our study found a significantly (p<0.001**) increased levels of serum calcium and significantly (p<0.001**) decreased levels of serum magnesium in cases as compared to controls. Our study also revealed a significant positive correlation between serum calcium with SBP (r= 0.842, p<0.001**) and DBP (r= 0.403, p= 0.004**); and a significant negative correlation between serum magnesium with SBP (r= -0.805, p<0.001**) and DBP (r=-0.395, p=0.005**) among essential hypertensives. Keywords: EHTN-Essential hypertension, HTN-Hypertension, SBP-Systolic blood pressure, DBP-Diastolic blood pressure, BP-Blood pressure.