Artikel
Mendelian randomization study does not support a role for hepatic steatosis influencing hypertension
Suche in Medline nach
Autoren
Veröffentlicht: | 20. September 2011 |
---|
Gliederung
Text
Findings from observational studies suggest that hepatic steatosis is associated with blood pressure and hypertension. Whether this association is causal or subject to confounding is unknown. We used a Mendelian randomization approach to further elucidate the causative nature of the correlation between hepatic steatosis and blood pressure traits. We performed our analyses within the Study of Health in Pomerania (SHIP), a population-based study in the north-eastern part of Germany. The study population comprised 3,997 individuals aged 20-81 years. Hepatic steatosis was defined as the presence of a hyperechogenic ultrasound pattern of the liver and increased serum alanine transferase (ALT) levels. Mendelian randomization was implemented using treatment effects and bivariate probit regression, with the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs738409 and rs214357 as instruments. The standard regression models revealed consistent associations of hepatic steatosis with systolic blood pressure (ß coefficient: 2.5, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.9-4.2) and hypertension (risk difference: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.03-0.11) after adjustment for sex, age, smoking, alcohol consumption, body mass index, waist-to-height ratio, physical activity, antihypertensive medication, total : HDL cholesterol ratio, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen, hemoglobin A1c, and diabetes. By contrast, findings from the Mendelian randomization experiment provided no evidence for a direct causal effect of hepatic steatosis on blood pressure traits. These data suggest that hepatic steatosis does not lead to elevated blood pressure.