In healthy normotensive subjects age and blood pressure better predict subclinical vascular and cardiac organ damage than atherosclerosis biomarkers

Figures & data

Figure 1. Values of the 4 markers of atherosclerotic process depending on carotid target organe damage (panel A), arterial stiffness (panel B) and left ventricular hypertrophy (panel C). PWV: Pulse Wave Velocity; PAI: Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor; TIMP: Tissue Inhibitor Metalloproteinases. Vertical lines showed 5th and 95th percentiles, boxes shown 25th and 75th percentiles, horizontal lines shown 50th percentile.

Table 1. Demographic, clinical and biochemical characteristics when patients were divided accordingly to the presence of carotid target organ damage.

	No Carotid TOD	Carotid TOD	p value	p value (age adjusted)
Number (n)	438	42	–	–
Male gender (%)	70.3	71.4	1	–
Age (years)	44.2 ± 9.5	52.2 ± 7.5	<.001	–
Systolic BP (mmHg)	120.6 ± 11.8	122.7 ± 11.7	.268	–
Diastolic BP (mmHg)	76.1 ± 8.7	75.3 ± 7.6	.493	–
Heart Rate (bpm)	66.9 ± 11	67.3 ± 10	.821	–
Waist circumference (cm)	86.8 ± 11.9	90.1 ± 11.7	.082	–
BMI (kg/m^2)	24.6 ± 3.2	25.5 ± 3.6	.295	–
Glucose (mg/dl)	89.5 ± 10.8	94.2 ± 13.0	.016	.023
Tryglicerides (mg/dl)	93.1 ± 48.6	92.0 ± 35.0	.859	–
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	194.4 ± 33.0	208.1 ± 28.9	.010	.019
HDL-cholesterol (mg/dl)	57.0 ± 14.2	58.1 ± 14.2	.686	–
LDL-cholesterol (mg/dl)	121.3 ± 30.9	132.4 ± 26.5	.032	–
Creatinine (mg/dl)	0.87 ± 0.18	0.89 ± 0.16	.466	–
Glomerular filtration rate (ml/min)	96.5 ± 17.4	91.5 ± 17.2	.082	–
PAI-1 (mg/L)	0.023 ± 0.015	0.024 ± 0.015	.816	–
P-selectin (mg/L)	0.079 ± 0.036	0.083 ± 0.038	.510	–
TIMP-1 (mg/L)	0.09 ± 0.023	0.097 ± 0.028	.083	–
Cystatin C (mg/L)	0.63 ± 0.14	0.67 ± 0.17	.039	.045

BP: Blood Pressure; PAI: Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor; TIMP: Tissue Inhibitor Metallo Proteinases.

Table 2. Demographic, clinical and biochemical characteristics when patients were divided accordingly to the presence of arterial stiffness.

	PWV <10 m/s	PWV >10 m/s	p value
Number (n)	465	15	–
Male gender (%)	70.3	73.3	1
Age (years)	44.8 ± 9.5	49.2 ± 11.9	.081
Systolic BP (mmHg)	120.5 ± 11.4	129.9 ± 17.9	.002
Diastolic BP (mmHg)	75.9 ± 8.5	80.9 ± 9.8	.024
Heart Rate (bpm)	66.8 ± 10.8	71.9 ± 14.9	.077
Waist Circumference (cm)	86.9 ± 11.7	90.1 ± 16.1	.307
BMI (kg/m^2)	24.6 ± 3.2	25.5 ± 4.2	.299
Glucose (mg/dl)	89.9 ± 11.1	89.3 ± 10.9	.844
Tryglicerides (mg/dl)	93.2 ± 47.6	88.6 ± 46.2	.715
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	195.5 ± 33.0	198.6 ± 29.0	.718
HDL-cholesterol (mg/dl)	57.0 ± 14.3	61.3 ± 11.0	.371
LDL-cholesterol (mg/dl)	122.3 ± 30.7	126.6 ± 30.3	.678
Creatinine (mg/dl)	0.88 ± 0.18	0.84 ± 0.15	.394
Glomerular filtration rate  (ml/min)	95.9 ± 17.2	100.3 ± 21.9	.330
PAI-1 (mg/L)	0.023 ± 0.015	0.021 ± 0.011	.557
P-selectin (mg/L)	0.08 ± 0.036	0.068 ± 0.015	.014
TIMP-1 (mg/L)	0.091 ± 0.024	0.094 ± 0.023	.557
Cystatin C (mg/L)	0.63 ± 0.14	0.62 ± 0.17	.838

BP: Blood Pressure; PAI: Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor; TIMP: Tissue Inhibitor Metallo Proteinases.

Table 3. Demographic, clinical and biochemical characteristics when patients were divided accordingly to the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy.

	No left ventricular hypertrophy	Left ventricular hypertrophy	p value	p value (age adjusted)
Number (n)	366	114	–	–
Male gender (%)	69.1	74.6	.292	–
Age (years)	43.9 ± 9.5	48.2 ± 9.4	<.001	–
Systolic BP (mmHg)	119.6 ± 11.1	124.5 ± 13.1	<.001	<.001
Diastolic BP (mmHg)	75.5 ± 8.7	77.8 ± 8.0	.010	.021
Heart rate (bpm)	68.1 ± 10.6	63.3 ± 11.4	<.001	<.001
Waist Circumference (cm)	86.7 ± 12.3	88.3 ± 10.5	.214	–
BMI (kg/m^2)	24.5 ± 3.3	25.2 ± 3.1	.047	.053
Glucose (mg/dl)	89.8 ± 10.7	90.3 ± 12.1	.670	–
Tryglicerides (mg/dl)	92.2 ± 47.7	95.8 ± 47.1	.481	–
Total cholesterol (mg/dl)	195.2 ± 33.2	196.9 ± 31.7	.620	–
HDL-cholesterol (mg/dl)	56.8 ± 14.0	58.1 ± 15.0	.453	–
LDL-cholesterol (mg/dl)	122.1 ± 31.9	123.6 ± 26.3	.677	–
Creatinine (mg/dl)	0.88 ± 0.18	0.88 ± 0.16	.936	–
Glomerular filtration rate (ml/min)	96.2 ± 18.0	95.4 ± 15.4	.647	–
PAI-1 (mg/L)	0.023 ± 0.015	0.024 ± 0.016	.815	–
P-selectin (mg/L)	0.080 ± 0.036	0.078 ± 0.035	.633	–
TIMP-1 (mg/L)	0.090 ± 0.023	0.092 ± 0.025	.618	–
Cystatin C (mg/L)	0.63 ± 0.14	0.64 ± 0.14	.270	–

BP: Blood Pressure; PAI: Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor; TIMP: Tissue Inhibitor Metallo Proteinases.