[Comparison of cardiovascular risk factors between normotension and prehypertension].

Background: The individuals with prehypertension are known to progress to hypertension, one of the risk factors of cardiovascular disease, more readily than the group of normal blood pressure. This study was performed to investigate the differences in the risk factors of cardiovascular disease between normotensive and prehypertensive groups, and to identify the determinants of prehypertension.
Methods: Normotensive (N=3,732) and prehypertensive individuals (N=676) were selected from the people who underwent routine medical checkups at the Health Promotion Center (Seoul, Korea). The age, body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose, total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol (C), HDL-C, high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), lipoprotein(a) [Lp(a)], and the number of white blood cell were compared between the normotensive and prehypertensive groups.
Results: The age, BMI, fasting blood glucose, triglyceride, and total cholesterol were higher in the males and females in the prehypertensive group than in the normotensive group. LDL-C, however, was higher and HDL-C was lower in the females in the prehypertensive group than in the normotensive group. The determinants of prehypertension were found to be age, BMI, and triglyceride.
Conclusions: There were differences in the risk factors of cardiovascular disease between the prehypertensive and normotensive groups.