Creatine Kinase as Predictor of Blood Pressure and Hypertension. Is It All About Body Mass Index? A Follow‐Up Study of 250 Patients

The correlation between creatine kinase ( CK ) and blood pressure ( BP ) was examined prospectively in 120 patients with persistent high CK and 130 individuals with normal CK . Hypertension was defined as systolic BP ( SBP ) ≥140 mm Hg or diastolic BP ( DBP ) ≥90 mm Hg or current use of antihypertensive medication. Baseline CK was weakly correlated with SBP ( r =0.11, P =.07) and DBP ( r =0.16, P =.01) at follow‐up. Persons with persistent high CK had higher SBP (140.8 mm Hg vs 138.2 mm Hg) and DBP (83.2 mm Hg vs 81.0 mm Hg, P =.06) values and were more likely to have hypertension (66.7% vs 55.5%, P =.05) than individuals with normal CK . In age‐ and sex‐adjusted analysis, a 1‐unit change in log CK was associated with a 4.9‐mm Hg higher SBP , a 3.3‐mm Hg higher DBP, and a 2.2‐higher odds for having hypertension at follow‐up ( P =.1, .07, and .06, respectively). When including body mass index ( BMI ) to the model, BMI was a strong and independent predictor for SBP , DBP, and hypertension at follow‐up and the CK effect on blood pressure was substantially attenuated. This study showed that the CK effect on blood pressure is clearly modified by BMI .