Biology of Sex Differences
Sex-specific responses to mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism in hypertensive African American males and females
- Received: 21 December 2018
- Accepted: 16 April 2019
- Published: 9 May 2019
Abstract
Background
African Americans (AA) develop hypertension (HTN) at an earlier age, have a greater frequency and severity of HTN, and greater prevalence of uncontrolled HTN as compared to the white population. Mineralocorticoid antagonists have been shown to be very effective in treating uncontrolled HTN in both AA and white patients, but sex-specific responses are unclear.
Methods
We evaluated the sex-specific impact of mineralocorticoid antagonism in an AA population. An AA cohort (n = 1483) from the Genetic Epidemiology Network of Arteriopathy study was stratified based on sex and whether they were taking spironolactone, a mineralocorticoid antagonist, in their antihypertensive regimen.
Results
As compared to AA women not prescribed a mineralocorticoid antagonist, AA women taking spironolactone (n = 9) had lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure despite having a similar number of antihypertensive medications. The proportion of AA women with uncontrolled HTN was significantly less for patients taking spironolactone than for patients not prescribed spironolactone. Interestingly, none of these associations were found in the AA males or in white females.
Conclusions
Our data suggests that spironolactone is particularly effective in reducing blood pressure and controlling HTN in AA women. Further research into the impact of this therapy in this underserved and understudied minority is warranted.
Keywords
- Sex-specific
- Hypertension
- Mineralocorticoid antagonist
- African American
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