Vascular endothelial growth factor as a marker of endothelial dysfunction in poly- and comorbidity: focus on hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus and subclinical hypothyroidism

Abstract

Background. The goal of our study was to investigate the content and particularities of change of vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) levels as a marker of endothelial dysfunction (ED) in patients with hypertension (HT) with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and with or without subclinical hypothyroidism (SH). Material and methods. 211 patients with hypertension II stage were divided into 3 groups: 1 gr. - with HT (n=55); 2 gr. - with AH and T2DM (n=97); 3 gr. - with HT,T2DM and SH (n=59). All 3 group patients depends on TSH levels were divided into 3 subgroups: 3a subgroup (n=26) - TSH 4.0-6.0mIU/L, 3b(n=20)- TSH 6.1-8.0mIU/L, 3c(n=13)- TSH 8.1-10.0mIU/L. We evaluate lipid, carbohydrate metabolism, serum insulin concentration, insulin resistance index – HOMA, the level of VEGF-A in plasma. Results. The levels of VEGF-A in group 2 was a significantly lower vs. group1 (323.94±22.17 pg/ml and 413.15±29.02 pg/ml, respectively (p 0.05.). In the 3a subgroup VEGF-A levels were significantly higher than in 2nd group patients (p<0.05). Conclusion. These data confirms the hypothesis of increasing ED in hypothyroidism even at the subclinical level.