Metabolic biomarkers and long-term blood pressure variability in military young male adults

BACKGROUND Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors, including central obesity, high blood pressure, elevated plasma glucose, reduced high-density lipoprotein and elevated triglyceride levels.AIM To investigate the relationship between metabolic biomarkers and long-term blood pressure variability(BPV) in young males.METHODS A cohort of 1112 healthy military males aged 18-40 years from the cardiorespiratory fitness and hospitalization events in armed forces study in eastern Taiwan was prospectively included. The following metabolic biomarkers were used: Waist circumference, serum uric acid(SUA), triglycerides, high density lipoprotein, triglycerides, and fasting glycose. BPV was assessed by average real variability(ARV) and standard deviation(SD) across 4 clinic visits during the study period(2012-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2016-18). Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to determine the association after adjusting for age, body mass index, systolic and diastolic blood pressure(SBP and DBP),lipid profiles, physical activity, alcohol intake and tobacco smoking status.RESULTS In the unadjusted model, waist circumference was significantly and positively correlated with ARVDBP and SDDBP [β(standard errors) = 0.16(0.049) and 0.22(0.065), respectively], as was SUA [β = 0.022(0.009) and 0.038(0.012),respectively]. High-density lipoprotein was negatively correlated with ARVSBP [β=-0.13(0.063)]. There were no associations with the other metabolic biomarkers.In contrast, only SUA was significantly correlated with SDSBP and SDDBP [β = 0.019(0.011) and 0.027(0.010), respectively] in the adjusted model.CONCLUSION Our findings showed that of traditional metabolic biomarkers, SUA had the strongest positive correlation with long-term systolic and diastolic BPV in young male adults, and the clinical relevance needs further investigation.