Hypertension, Insulin Resistance, and Aldosterone: Sex-Specific Relationships

African Americans, particularly men, have the highest morbidity and mortality rates from hypertension in the United States. The authors studied 527 African Americans in a general clinical research center to determine whether there are sex differences in the relationships between hypertension with insulin resistance (IR) and aldosterone, which are risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Measurements included ambulatory blood pressure (BP), anthropometric measures, plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone (PA) concentration, and fasting serum lipids, glucose, and insulin. IR was estimated using the Homeostasis Model Assessment (HOMA) model. BP correlated with aldosterone in both sexes. However, both BP and PA correlated with IR in men, but not in women. Compared with men in the lower tertile of HOMA-IR, men in the upper tertile had higher mean systolic BP, a higher odds ratio of having hypertension, and higher levels of PA. The association of IR with both hypertension and PA in men, but not in women, may contribute to the high prevalence of cardiovascular disease in African American men.