Borderline high serum calcium levels are associated with arterial stiffness and 10-year cardiovascular disease risk determined by Framingham risk score

Abstract

Recent epidemiological data indicate that the concentration of circulatingcalciumis related tocardiovasculardisease(CVD) mortality. Wedeterminedwhetherserumcalciumlevel is related toarterialstiffnessand10-yearCVDriskcalculated byFraminghamriskscore(FRS). We examined the association of normal-rangeserumcalciumlevel witharterialstiffnessand FRS in 565 Korean adults participating at the Health Promotion Center of Gangnam Severance Hospital between March 2016 and May 2017.Highbrachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) was defined as >1460cm/s, andhighFRS was defined as ≥10 percent for10-yearCVDrisk. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) forhighbaPWV andhighFRS were calculated using multiple logistic regression analysis after adjusting for confounding variables. The OR (95% CI) forhighbaPWV was 3.91 (1.15-7.36) per 1mg/dL increment ofserumcalciumafter adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, exercise regularity, alcohol consumption, mean blood pressure, fasting plasma glucose, triglyceride, HDL-cholesterol, C-reactive protein, γ-glutamyltransferase, uric acid level, phosphate level, potassium level, and presence of hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia medications (P=0.024). A positive association betweenserumcalciumlevel andhighFRS was also observed after adjusting for the same covariables (OR, 3.54 [95% CI, 1.01-12.44], P=0.048).Serumcalciumlevel was independently and positivelyassociatedwith baPWV and10-yearCVDriskestimates. Early detection of higherserumcalciumlevel may be important for the assessment ofarterialstiffnessand futureriskof acardiovascularevent.