Plasma inflammatory markers and the risk of developing hypertension in men

Background--several cross-sectional,but few prospective,studies suggest that inflammation may be involved in the development of hypertension. we examined markers of inflammation-high-sensitivity c-reactive protein,interleukin-6,and soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1-and a marker of fibrinolysis,d-dimer,for their associations with incident hypertension in the physicians' health study. methods and results--baseline blood values and information on hypertension-related risk factors were collected in 1982. incident hypertension was defined as self-reported initiation of antihypertensive treatment,systolic blood pressure =140 mm hg,or diastolic blood pressure =90 mm hg during follow-up. with use of a nested case-control design,396 cases of incident hypertension and controls free of hypertension were matched 1:1 on age (mean 47.4 years) and follow-up time. in crude matchedpair analyses,the conditional relative risks of hypertension in the second through fourth versus the lowest quartiles for plasma high-sensitivity c-reactive protein were 1.27,1.73,and 1.81 (ptrend=0.01); for interleukin-6,1.22,1.02,and 1.51 (ptrend=0.06); for soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1,1.00,0.80,and 1.26 (ptrend=0.37); and for d-dimer,1.61,1.81,and 1.52 (ptrend=0.46). multivariable adjustment attenuated the estimates. the multivariable relative risks of hypertension in the second through fourth compared to the lowest quartiles of high-sensitivity c-reactive protein were 1.24,1.60,and 1.47 (ptrend=0.20); for interleukin-6,1.08,0.92,and 1.36 (ptrend=0.16); for soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1,0.89,0.79,and 1.18 (ptrend=0.55); and for d-dimer,1.48,1.68,and 1.38 (ptrend=0.63) conclusions--elevated plasma inflammatory markers and d-dimer were nonsignificantly associated with a higher risk of hypertension among initially healthy men. © 2015 the authors.