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

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

RYUICHI KAWAMOTO,¹ KATSUHIKO KOHARA,² YASUHARU TABARA,² TOMO KUSUNOKI,¹ NOBUYUKI OTSUKA¹ and TETSURO MIKI²

¹Department of Internal Medicine, Nomura Municipal Hospital, Ehime, Japan
²Department of Geriatric Medicine, Ehime University School of Medicine, Ehime, Japan

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.

keywords —— gamma-glutamyl transferase; hypertension; prehypertension; risk factor; Japanese men.

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2008, 216, 213-221

Correspondence: Ryuichi Kawamoto, Department of Internal Medicine, Seiyo Municipal Nomura Hospital, 9-53 Nomura, Nomura-cho, Seiyo-city, Ehime 797-1212, Japan.

e-mail: rykawamo@ehime.med.or.jp