Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2011, 223(2)

Association between Bone Mineral Density and Arterial Stiffness in Hypertensive Patients

HISASHI MASUGATA,¹ SHOICHI SENDA,¹ MICHIO INUKAI,¹ KOJI MURAO,² NAOHISA HOSOMI,³ YASUYOSHI IWADO,⁴ TAKAHISA NOMA,⁴ MASAKAZU KOHNO,⁴ NOBUYUKI MIYATAKE,⁵ TAKASHI HIMOTO¹ and FUMINORI GODA¹

¹Department of Integrated Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan
²Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Internal medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan
³Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Therapeutics, Hiroshima University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima, Japan
⁴Department of Cardiorenal and Cerebrovascular Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan
⁵Department of Hygiene, Faculty of Medicine, Kagawa University, Kagawa, Japan

Hypertension and osteoporosis are two common diseases in the elderly population. Recently, reduced bone mineral density has been found in hypertensive patients compared with healthy controls. Reduced bone mineral density is associated with increased arterial stiffness in chronic dialysis patients and healthy postmenopausal women. However, relationships between bone mineral density and arterial stiffness in hypertensive patients have not been fully assessed. We examined the relationships between bone mineral density and both arterial stiffness and nutritional status in 52 hypertensive patients (27 male and 25 female subjects; mean age 71 ± 8 years) who had been treated with antihypertensive drugs for at least one year. The bone mineral density of the calcaneus was measured with a quantitative ultrasound measurement device, and the stiffness index was determined as a parameter of the bone mineral density. We measured the cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI) to assess arterial stiffness and used the serum albumin to assess nutritional status. Increased arterial stiffness as assessed with CAVI is associated with reduced bone mineral density (r = −0.289, p = 0.038). However, the correlation between CAVI and bone mineral density is not as strong as the correlation between serum albumin and bone mineral density (r = 0.501, p < 0.001). In conclusion, nutritional status is an important indicator of bone mineral density in hypertensive patients. Moreover, increased arterial stiffness is associated with reduced bone mineral density in hypertensive patients. Therefore, hypertensive patients with increased arterial stiffness may have a high risk of bone fracture due to osteoporosis.

keywords —— hypertension; bone mineral density; arterial stiffness; cardio-ankle vascular index

© 2011 Tohoku University Medical Press

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Tohoku J. Exp. Med., 2011, 223, 85-90

Correspondence: Hisashi Masugata, M.D., Ph.D., Department of Integrated Medicine, Kagawa University, 1750-1, Miki-cho, Kita-gun, Kagawa 761-0793, Japan.

e-mail: masugata@med.kagawa-u.ac.jp