Study design and setting
We carried out a prospective cross-sectional study in the Cardiology Department of the Yaoundé Central Hospital, and the Biochemistry Laboratory of the Yaoundé University Hospital Centre. Study participants were recruited from January 2022 to March 2022. This study was conducted within the unfunded project HYRICCA (Hypertension et Risque Cardiovasculaire des Camerounais).
Participants
We included consenting adults aged above 18 years living with hypertension diagnosed according to the ESC/ESH (European Society of Cardiology/European Society of Hypertension) 2018 criteria [7]. We excluded any participant with known liver disease (including viral hepatitis B and C) or clinical signs of it, and/or alanine amino transferase (ALT) levels greater than 1.5 times the upper limit of normal (36U/L). We also excluded any participant with known diabetes, or with a plasma fasting glucose level greater than 1.26 g/L, chronic kidney disease (CKD) with glomerular filtration rate less than 45 mL/min (evaluate with the MDRD (Modification of Diet in Renal Disease) formula with 4 parameters), as well as any participant on anticonvulsant medication, hormonal contraception, thyroid hormones, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication, and/or having had an infection in the previous month, or suffering from a chronic inflammatory disease or cancer, as these situations can altered the GGT and inflammatory markers levels.
Sample size estimation
The sample size was estimated at 146 using the sample size formula for a difference in means contained in Whitley and Ball's article [8]. The standardized difference was calculated from the GGT values contained in the Melvin et al. study between the higher and lower cardiometabolic risk groups (included hypertensive), for 80% power and a 0.05 error rate [9].
Data collection
Participants were identified during their cardiology consultation and invited to participate in the study. An informed consent was obtained from each participant before inclusion. Data were collected using a data collection sheet. These included sociodemographic (age, gender) and clinical data. Clinical variables includes history of hypertension (time since diagnosis, current treatment), other cardiovascular risk factors (smoking, alcohol consumption, sedentary lifestyle, known dyslipidaemia, first-degree family history of major cardiovascular event), cardiovascular complications, comorbidities, blood pressure (BP), weight and height to calculate the body mass index (BMI), and the waist circumference (WC). Blood pressure was measured using the device OMRON® M7 Brand digital blood pressure monitor, INC.
Biological analysis
After the clinical examination, we collected 15 mL of fasting plasma blood (8 h fasting). On this sample, we performed GGT assays according to the method of Szasz, Rosalki, and Tarlow [10]; fasting blood glucose according to the method of Trinder; albuminemia according to the Bromocresol Green’s method (BCG); serum uric acid according to the Uricase method; serum creatinine by the modified Jaffé kinetic and colorimetric method (used to calculate glomerular filtration rate later using the 4-parameter MDRD equation); high-sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) by immunofluorescence, and lipid profile components (total cholesterol, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol) according to the method of Trinder. LDL cholesterol was calculated using the Friedewald formula. From the lipid profile parameters, we calculated the atherogenicity indices: ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, LDL to HDL ratio, triglycerides to HDL ratio, and the plasma atherogenic index (PAI) (logarithm of triglycerides to HDL ratio).
Evaluation of cardiovascular risk
For each participant, we assessed global cardiovascular risk using five model scores, namely the WHO (World Health Organization) CVD risk laboratory-based charts for central Sub Saharan Africa (for participants aged 40 to 74 years), the EuroScore 2003 (for men aged 40 to 65 years and women aged 50 to 65 years), the ACC/AHA ASCVD (American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease) score 2013 (patients over 40 years of age), the Framingham score 2008 (30 to 79 years of age), and the Reynolds score (for participants under 80 years of age) [11,12,13,14]. These scores were selected from the literature with a preference for those that included black subjects in their study population. From these scores, each participant was classified according to his or her overall cardiovascular risk and stratified according to their recommendations.
Operational terms
Sedentary lifestyle was defined as physical activity of less than 45 min twice a week. Abdominal obesity was considered for a waist circumference exceeding 102 cm in men and 88 cm in women; overweight was defined as a BMI between 25 and 29.9 kg/m2, and obesity as a BMI of 30 kg/m2 or more. Controlled hypertension was defined for systolic and diastolic values below 140 and 90 mmHg, respectively for a hypertensive patient. Moderate fasting hyperglycaemia was considered for fasting blood glucose between 1.1 and 1.25 g/L. Hyperuricemia was considered above 60 mg/L for women and 70 mg/L for men. Hypercholesterolemia above 2 g/L total cholesterol; low HDL cholesterol below 0.45 g/L in men and 0.55 g/L in women; hypertriglyceridemia above 1.6 g/L in men and 1.35 g/L in women; and hyper LDL cholesterol above 1.3 g/L. HsCRP values exceeding 6 mg/L were excluded. Metabolic syndrome was defined according to the NCEP-ATP III criteria [15].
Statistical analysis
All the data collected were analysed using the software SPSS version 23.0. The figures have been designed with Microsoft® Office Excel software version 2016. Quantitative variables are presented with their mean and standard deviation (SD), or median with interquartile range for non-continuous variables. Qualitative variables were expressed as counts and proportions. Association with GGT and various clinical and biological parameters of cardiovascular risk, were sought using the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). We used linear regression to analyse the effect of GGTs on the different cardiovascular risk scores through three models: an unadjusted model, and two models adjusted on the one hand by age and gender, and on the other hand by age, gender, uric acid, HDL, LDL, triglycerides, ALT, hsCRP, and waist circumference. Furthermore, using the Anova test, we compared the risk levels according to the studied scores based on the GGT values stratified according to the interquartile ranges. For all the tests used, the threshold of significance was set at 0.05.