Association between Serum Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase Level and Prehypertension among Community-Dwelling Men

Abstract

Serum gamma-glutamyl transferase (GGT) activity is a general clinical marker of excessive alcohol consumption, and GGT reflects changes in oxidative stress and implicated in the progression of hypertension. Recent guidelines classify persons with above-optimal blood pressure (BP) but not clinical hypertension as having prehypertension for a systolic BP (SBP) of 120 to 139 mmHg and/or a diastolic BP (DBP) of 80 to 89 mmHg; however, only limited data are available on the association between serum GGT and this entity among community-dwelling men in Japan. We performed a cross-sectional study to examine whether serum GGT was associated with prehypertension. Study participants (754 men, age 56 ± 15 years) without a clinical history of stroke, transient ischemic attack, myocardial infarction, angina, or renal failure were recruited from a single community. Thirty-seven percent of participants had prehypertension and 39.3% had hypertension. Multiple regression analysis using SBP and DBP as objective variables, adjusted for risk factors as explanatory variables, showed that log GGT was significantly and independently associated with elevated SBP (β = 0.109, P = 0.006) and DBP (β = 0.238, P < 0.001). Compared with participants in the lowest tertile of serum GGT (< 29 IU/L), the multivariate-adjusted odds ratio (OR) (95% CI) for prehypertension was 1.73 (1.06-2.81) for the middle tertile (29-53 IU/L) and 2.37 (1.31-4.31) for the highest tertile (> 53 IU/L). Moreover, the respective ORs for hypertension were 1.82 (1.04-3.18) and 3.11 (1.61-6.03). These results suggest that higher serum GGT levels are associated with prehypertension or hypertension in the general male population. gamma-glutamyl transferase; hypertension; prehypertension; risk factor; Japanese men. Tohoku

High Prevalence of Prehypertension Is Associated with the Increased Body Mass Index in Community-Dwelling Japanese

“…Several previous studies showed that being obese or overweight increased the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and renal dysfunction (Mokdad et al 2003;Qureshi et al 2005;Gu et al 2008). The relationship between increased BMI and blood pressure may incorporate other non-traditional risk factors not examined in this report, including increased C-reactive protein (Ridker et al 2002), amyloid A (Poitou et al 2006), hyperlipidemia (Qureshi et al 2005;Gu et al 2008), cytokines (Honda et al 2006), homocysteine (Homocysteine Studies Collaboration 2002), oxidative stress (Drüeke et al 2002), hyperleptinemia (Mathew et al 2007), increased sympathetic activity (Masuo et al 2000), renal hyperfiltration (Knight and Imig 2007) and gamma-glutamyl transferase activity (Kawamoto et al 2008) caused by insulin resistance, and the renin-angiotensin system (Engeli et al 1999). All these risk factors result in atherosclerosis, and prehypertension and hypertension may be complicated by both the severity and duration of atherosclerosis, and vice versa.…”

Relationship Between Serum Gamma‐Glutamyltransferase Levels and Prehypertension in Chinese Adults: The Cardiometabolic Risk in Chinese Study

“…Shankar and colleagues reported a clear positive association between GGT levels and prehypertension among adult men and women in the United States. Previous studies indicated this association in Korean and Japanese men but not in women . However, no large‐scale studies have assessed whether GGT is independently associated with prehypertension in the Chinese population.…”

Morning blood pressure surge is associated with serum gamma-glutamyltransferase activity in essential hypertensive patients

“…25 GGT has a direct role in the generation of reactive oxygen species in the presence of iron or other transition metals, including lipid peroxidation in human biological membranes and is an indirect marker of antioxidant systems, with the primary function of maintaining the intracellular concentration of glutathione in response to oxidative stress. 10 GGT has also been used as a proinflammatory marker because of its indirect involvement in the generation of cysteinyl-glycine, which results in low-density lipoprotein oxidation. The enzyme activity of serum GGT found within atherosclerotic lesions directly contributes to atherosclerosis progression.…”

“…Stranges et al 9 showed that serum GGT, within the physiological range, was a strong predictor of incident hypertension in a dose-response relationship. Kawamoto et al 10 reported that both systolic and diastolic BPs increased significantly with increasing GGT levels among communitydwelling men in Japan. Most recently, Chun et al 6 and Kim et al 7 disclosed that serum GGT was independently associated with incident prehypertension and hypertension in Korean adults, respectively.…”