High-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels are associated with major adverse cardiovascular events in male but not female patients with hypertension

Abstract

Background: The relationship between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACEs) in hypertensive patients of different sexes is unclear. Hypothesis: Sex differences in the relationship between HDL-C levels and the risk of MACEs among hypertensive patients. Methods: We performed a post-hoc analysis of data obtained from the Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) and explored sex-based differences in the relationship between HDL-C levels and MACEs among hypertensive patients using Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: A total of 9323 hypertensive patients (6016 [64.53%] men and 3307 [35.47%] women) were assessed using SPRINT data. MACEs occurred in 395 (6.57%) men and 166 (5.02%) women after a mean follow-up of 3.26 years. When HDL-C levels were used as a continuous covariate, each 10 mg/dl increase in HDL-C levels decreased the risk of MACEs in men (hazard ratio [HR], 0.78; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.70–0.88; p