Endocrine Abstracts

Introduction: Hypertension is associated with increased risk of vascular disease. There is possible relation between low vitamin D levels and subclinical atherosclerosis defined as increased carotid intima media thickness (CIMT). Vitamin D deficiency is defined as levels below 20 ng/ml. In this study we aimed to find out the relation between 25 hydroxy D vitamin level and CIMT and the presence of atherosclerotic plaques.

Methods: A total number of 163 patients (15 male and 148 female subjects) with essential hypertension aged between 30 and 76 were included to the study. The patients were already on hypertensive medication. CIMT was measured and the presence of plaque was evaluated by real time B mode ultrasonography. Serum parathormone and 25 OH vit D levels were measured using ELISA. None of the patients were on steroid medication. All parametric variables were evaluated with Student’s t-test using SPSS 10.0. The relation between 25 OH vitamin D level and MCIMT was evaluated with Pearson correlation analysis. χ² test was done for nonparametric variables. P below 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results: Patients with plaques were older than those without plaques (P=0.0001) and had longer duration of hypertension (P=0.008) and higher TSH level (P=0.06). Eighty had plaques. Seventy three patients had severe vitamin D deficiency defined as level below 10 ng/ml and 64 had insufficiency, (10–20 ng/ml). Vitamin D levels were similar in both groups (P=0.44) but those with plaques had higher MCIMT (P=0.0001). MCIMT was positively correlated with age (r=0.399, P=0.0001), fasting glucose (r=0.165, P=0.036), and HbA1c (r=0.384, P=0.002). There was no correlation between Vitamin D level (P=0.75) and LDL (P=0.581).

Conclusion: We did not find any relation between vitamin D level and MCIMT in hypertensive subjects. The lack of significance may be due to high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. There was no correlation between vitamin D level (P=0.75) and LDL (P=0.581).