Assessment of Vitamin D Levels in Relation to Statin Therapy in Elderly Hypertensive Patients with Comorbidities

Background: Statin therapy is commonly used on the long term in hypertensive patients with dyslipidemia and can interfere with vitamin D metabolism. Overweight/obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) are frequently associated with hypertension.

The aim of the study was the assessment of vitamin D status in elderly hypertensive patients with metabolic comorbidities with/without statin therapy, in relation to body mass index (BMI) and lipid profile parameters.

Material and methods: The study group included 89 hypertensive patients (61 statin-treated) admitted to the Cardiovascular Rehabilitation Clinical Hospital in Târgu Mureș between 2019 and 2021. Vitamin D levels were measured by ELISA method, lipid profile parameters by photometric procedures. Calculated values were LDL-cholesterol and BMI.

Results: Obesity and DM were present in association with hypertension in 51% of the subjects. A total of 89% of the enrolled hypertensive patients had hypovitaminosis D. Average serum vitamin D of the studied subjects was 14.27 ± 11.96 ng/mL. No significant difference was obtained in vitamin D levels depending on gender, the presence/absence of statin therapy, and DM as a comorbidity. A negative correlation was seen between serum HDL-cholesterol and triglyceride concentrations (r = –0.3988, p = 0.0008) and between HDL levels and BMI (r = –0.3114, p = 0.0475).

Conclusions: Suboptimal vitamin D levels were present in the majority of the studied hypertensive patients regardless of the statin therapy, which reveals the importance of concomitant assessment of vitamin D levels, especially in elderly subjects presenting chronic metabolic comorbidities.