2019, Vol. 1, Issue 2, Part A

Background and Objective: Serum calcium levels have been shown to be associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD); however, it is not clear whether serum calcium levels are related to hypertension, a risk factor for CVD.

In a country like India, people tend to have a diet rich in Sodium and poor in Potassium and Calcium. Studies have shown that a decreased intake of Sodium and increased Calcium intake or both together may be effective in prevention or even treatment of hypertension. So efforts were made to correlate the serum calcium levels with blood pressure.

Methodology: The present study attempts to focus the serum calcium and serum ionized calcium among essential hypertensives who were free from any other illness (or) under any medication and to correlate serum calcium and serum ionized calcium status with the blood pressure. Serum calcium and ionized calcium was estimated in fifty hypertensives (M= 26, F=24) & fifty healthy controls (M=28; F=22).

Results: Out of the 100 cases, mean serum calcium level was 8.1 ± 0.9 mg/dl whereas in 100 controls, it was 9.0 ± 0.8 mg/dl and the difference was significant with ‗p ‘value of <0.001. Mean Serum ionized calcium level was 4.3 ± 0.4 mg/dl in cases and it was 4.8 ± 0.4 mg/dl in controls with ‗p ‘value of <0.001. The blood pressure also correlated positively with body mass index and random blood sugar whereas negatively correlated with Serum Calcium and serum ionized calcium.

Conclusion: Serum calcium and serum ionized calcium was significantly less among hypertensives and correlated negatively with blood pressure. In view of the significant changes in Serum Calcium among Hypertensive population, community must be motivated to consume Calcium rich diet as a form of primary prevention for essential Hypertension. Body mass index correlated positively with blood pressure suggesting that people should be motivated for healthy life style and to maintain BMI in normal range.