Bone mineral density in women with essential hypertension

Recent studies have reported the abnormalities in calcium metabolism at the systemic level in human hypertension as well as in experimental hypertensi on. Because bone is the largest store of calcium in the body, the bone calc ium content and mineralization may represent the entire calcium balance. Th e present study was undertaken to investigate the bone mineral density (BMD ) in women with essential hypertension by means of the dual-energy X-ray ab sorptiometric (DXA) method. The DXA analysis showed a significant decrease in BMD in female hypertensive subjects compared with normotensive subjects, in addition, the BMD was inversely correlated with systolic blood pressure in women. The 24-h urinary calcium excretion was significantly greater in female hype rtensive subjects than in female normotensive subjects. Furthermore, the gr eater the urinary calcium excretion, the lower the BMD in women. The values of serum total calcium, total magnesium, ionized calcium, and 1,25 (OH)(2) vitamin D were not different between hypertensive and normotensive subject s. The results of the present study demonstrated that DXA provided an index of whole calcium balance, and suggest that high blood pressure might be as sociated with reduced BMD in female hypertension. (C) 2001 American Journal of Hypertension, Ltd.