Tropical diseases and risk of hypertension in the Amazon Basin: a cross-sectional study

Author(s):Show less -

Holm, Anna Engell ^{[1, 2]} ; Gomes, Laura Cordeiro ^[3] ; Lima, Karine O. ^[1] ; Wegener, Alma ^{[1, 2]} ; Matos, Luan O. ^[1] ; Vieira, Isabelle V. M. ^[1] ; Kaagaard, Molly D. ^{[1, 2]} ; Pareek, Manan ^[4] ; de Souza, Rodrigo Medeiros ^[1] ; Farias Marinho, Claudio Romero ^[3] ; Biering-Sorensen, Tor ^{[5, 2]} ; Silvestre, Odilson M. ^[6] ; Brainin, Philip ^{[1, 2]}

Affiliation

^[1] Univ Fed Acre, Multidisciplinary Ctr, Campus Floresta, Cruzeiro Do Sul, Acre - Brazil

^[2] Copenhagen Univ Hosp Herlev & Gentofte, Dept Cardiol, Hellerup - Denmark

^[3] Univ Sao Paulo, Inst Biomed Sci, Dept Parasitol, Sao Paulo - Brazil

^[4] Yale New Haven Med Ctr, Dept Internal Med, Yale Sch Med, New Haven, CT - USA

^[5] Univ Copenhagen, Fac Biomed Sci, Copenhagen - Denmark

^[6] Univ Fed Acre, Hlth & Sport Sci Ctr, Rio Branco, Acre - Brazil

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: JOURNAL OF HUMAN HYPERTENSION; NOV 2021.
• Web of Science Citations: 0

Abstract

Although infectious diseases have been associated with cardiovascular conditions, little is known about tropical disease burden and hypertension. We hypothesized that a history of tropical infections was associated with hypertension. We examined participants from outpatient clinics in the Amazon Basin who were interviewed about prior exposure to tropical diseases, including dengue, malaria hospitalization, and leishmaniasis. Hypertension was defined as a prior physician diagnosis of hypertension, treatment with anti-hypertensive medication, or a systolic blood pressure >= 140 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure >= 90 mmHg. We used logistic regression models to examine the relationship between tropical infectious disease and hypertension. We included 556 participants (mean age 41 +/- 15 years, 61% women) of whom 214 (38%) had hypertension and 354 (64%) had a history of tropical infectious disease. The distribution of tropical diseases was: dengue 270 (76%), malaria hospitalization 104 (29%) and leishmaniasis 48 (14%). Any prior tropical infection was significantly associated with prevalent hypertension (odds ratio 1.76 {[}95% CI 1.22-2.54], P = 0.003) and the association remained significant after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, socioeconomic status, smoking, vegetable intake and serum creatinine. Persons with a history of >= 2 tropical infections (n = 64) had the greatest risk of hypertension (odds ratio 2.04 {[}95% CI 1.15-3.63], P = 0.015). In adjusted models, prior infection with dengue was associated with hypertension (P = 0.006), but no associations were found with malaria hospitalization (P = 0.39) or leishmaniasis (P = 0.98). In conclusion, a history of tropical infectious disease was associated with hypertension. This finding supports the idea that pathogen burden may be related to cardiovascular conditions. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 20/06747-4 - Study of the humoral immune response in recurrent infections by Plasmodium vivax in pregnant women from Amazon region
• Grantee: Cláudio Romero Farias Marinho
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants