Lp(a) in hypertensive patients.

Lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) is considered an important risk factor for coronary disease, cerebrovascular pathology and re-stenosis of coronary bypass. Few studies have been conducted on this lipoprotein in essential arterial hypertensive patients. The purpose of our study was to measure the serum concentrations of Lp(a) and the main parameters of the lipid profile in a group of essential hypertensive patients not receiving pharmacological treatment and with no clinical signs of associated pathologies or organ damage. A total of 123 Caucasian essential arterial hypertensive patients (47 men and 76 women) were studied and compared with 89 controls (36 men and 53 women) matched in terms of age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and smoking habits. It was found that the hypertensive patients had higher plasma concentrations of Lp(a), total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TG) and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL-C) than controls (P < 0.01), with no differences in the plasma concentrations of Lp(a) between the two sexes. Only 10 hypertension patients and seven controls had plasma concentrations of Lp(a) of over 30 mg/dl. Lp(a) does not correlate with the main parameters of the lipid profile. We can confirm that hypertension and dyslipidaemia, which are two of the main risk factors for vascular diseases on an atherosclerotic basis, are often associated. However, higher plasma concentrations of Lp(a), albeit within the normal range, could be an independent risk factor for atherosclerosis, and could contribute towards increasing the incidence of cardiovascular disease in people with essential arterial hypertension.