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

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 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. 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. 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). 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.