hs-CRP: A potential marker for hypertension in Kashmiri population.

Hypertension is the most important public health problem in developing countries and one of the major risk factors for cardiovascular diseases, and it has been reported that hypertension is in part an inflammatory disorder and several workers have reported elevated levels of CRP in hypertensive individuals. The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the association between blood pressure and serum CRP levels across the range of blood pressure categories including prehypertension. A total of 104 patients and 63 control subjects were included in the present study. The level of CRP in the serum samples was estimated by a high sensitivity immunoturbidometric assay. Standard unpaired student's 't' test was used for comparison of hs-CRP levels between hypertensive patients and normotensive control subjects and between patient groups with different grades of hypertension and different durations of hypertensive histories. The mean serum hs-CRP level in hypertensive patients was 3.26 mg/L compared with 1.36 mg/L among normotensive control subjects (P<0.001). On comparison with normotensive control subjects, the hs-CRP levels vary significantly both with grades and duration of hypertension, with most significant difference found in patients with prehypertension (P<0.001), followed by Stage-I (P=0.01) and Stage-II(P=0.02) hypertensives. Significant difference in hs-CRP levels was also found in patients with shorter duration of hypertensive history (≤ 1year) when compared with those with ≥5 years of hypertensive history (P<0.01). Our study reveals a graded association between blood pressure and CRP elevation in people with hypertension. Individuals with prehypertension or with shorter duration of hypertension (≤1 Year) had significantly a greater likelihood of CRP elevation in comparison to chronic stage-I or stage-II hypertensives.