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(Hypertension. 2004;43:1297.)
© 2004 American Heart Association, Inc.

Scientific Contributions

Tooth Loss Is Associated With an Increased Risk of Hypertension in Postmenopausal Women

Akira Taguchi; Mitsuhiro Sanada; Yoshikazu Suei; Masahiko Ohtsuka; Kaoru Lee; Keiji Tanimoto; Mikio Tsuda; Koso Ohama; Masao Yoshizumi; Yukihito Higashi

From the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology (A.T., Y.S., K.L.), Hiroshima University Hospital, Japan; and the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Clinical Medical Science (M.S., M.T., K.O.), Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Division of Medical Intelligence and Informatics (M.O., K.T.), and Cardiovascular Physiology and Medicine (M.Y., Y.H.), Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Hiroshima University, Japan.

Correspondence to Akira Taguchi, DDS, PhD, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology, Hiroshima University Hospital, 1-2-3 Kasumi, Minami-ku, Hiroshima 734-8553, Japan. E-mail akiro{at}hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Tooth loss has been associated with an increased risk of vascular diseases such as coronary heart disease and cerebrovascular disease. Little is known whether hypertension is an important factor linking 2 phenomena in postmenopausal women. We compared an incidence of hypertension and traditional risk factors for vascular diseases between 2 age-matched groups: 67 postmenopausal women with missing teeth and 31 without missing teeth. In addition to blood pressure, serum concentration of total cholesterol, high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, plasma angiotensin-converting enzyme activity, plasma angiotensin II concentration, plasma renin activity, and resting heart rate were measured as traditional risk factors for vascular diseases. Subjects without missing teeth had significantly lower diastolic blood pressure than did subjects with missing teeth (P=0.021). The former tended to have lower systolic blood pressure than did the latter (P=0.058). There were no significant differences in other variables between subjects with and without missing teeth. The odds ratio of having hypertension in subjects with missing teeth was 3.59 (95% confidence interval, 1.10 to 11.7) after adjustment of obesity, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertriglyceridemia. Our results suggest that hypertension may be an important factor linking tooth loss and an increased risk of vascular diseases in postmenopausal women.

Key Words: vascular diseases • hypertension • women

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