Source: Diabetes Care  |  Posted 9 years ago

Increased serum ferritin, a possible risk factor for hepatic cirrhosis and atherogenesis, is common in hypertensive men.

Alberto Piperno, at the University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy, and colleagues have found that men with essential hypertension may have a high prevalence of increased iron stores and metabolic abnormalities that are part of the insulin-resistance-associated hepatic iron overload syndrome (IRHIO).

The investigators studied 88 consecutive patients with essential hypertension, 62 patients with IRHIO and 102 healthy normotensive controls. Patients with hemochromatosis, other conditions that may induce secondary iron overload, or serum ferritin increase unrelated to body iron stores were excluded.

The researchers collected and analyzed the patients' iron indices, metabolic profiles, liver function and hepatic ultrasound data.

They found that 21 percent of men with hypertension had increased serum ferritin, compared with none of the normotensive controls.

Hypertensive men with increased serum ferritin had more frequent and pronounced metabolic alterations than those with normal serum ferritin. The metabolic abnormalities and serum ferritin were frequently positively correlated, the researchers reported.

They also found that the metabollic and iron data in hypertensive men with increased serum ferritin were similar to those of IRHIO patients with
Hypertension.

"In males, hypertension is characterized by a higher prevalence of increased iron stores and metabolic abnormalities that are part of the IRHIO syndrome," the researchers concluded. "This finding may have clinical implications due to the increased risk of IRHIO patients to develop hepatic cirrhosis and also for the role of iron in early atherogenesis."