HYPERTENSION PROMOTES CORONARY CALCIUM DEPOSIT IN ASYMPTOMATIC MEN

Despite its important role in coronary disease, coronary atheroscleros is has been poorly investigated in uncomplicated hypertension. Therefo re, we evaluated the presence and amount (score) of coronary calcium w ith ultrafast computed tomography in 73 pairs of age-matched asymptoma tic hypertensive or normotensive men. We also estimated the extent of peripheral atherosclerosis as the number of arterial sites (carotid, a ortic, femoral) with echographic plaque. Compared with normotensive me n, hypertensive men had more frequent coronary calcium (63% versus 47% ), a higher calcium score (57+/-111 versus 18+/-38), and an odds ratio of calcium deposit of 1.95 (with confidence intervals [CI] 95%, 1.01 to 3.79) for any score and of 2.38 (95% CI, 1.02 to 5.52) or 4.84 (95% CI, 1.53 to 15.3) for scores above 50 or 100, respectively. Hypertens ive men showed correlations of calcium score with age and hypertension duration but nor with the height of blood pressure, and the odds rati o of calcium deposit between extensive and minor peripheral atheroscle rosis was 4.67 (95% CI, 1.41 to 15.45) for any score and 8.63 (95% CI, 2.10 to 35.5) or 8.13 (95% CI, 1.64 to 40.3) for scores above 50 or 1 001. Thus, high blood pressure and in particular its duration rather t han its value promotes the presence and overall extent of coronary cal cium, a potential predictor of sudden coronary death, in parallel with the extent of peripheral atherosclerosis. The mechanisms of the inter action of hypertension and coronary calcification may be multifactoria l and not specific to hypertension.