Abstract P320: Soluble Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products and Incident Hypertension: REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS)

Background: Black US adults experience greater hypertension burden than other groups and have lower levels of serum soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE). Higher sRAGE may dampen inflammation pathway activity. Inflammation is a hypertension risk factor. It is unclear if lower sRAGE is associated with greater risk of incident hypertension overall and among Black adults. Objective: To estimate the risk of incident hypertension by sRAGE level. Methods: REGARDS enrolled 30,239 Black and White adults in the 48 contiguous United States in 2003-07; a second visit occurred 2013-16. ELISAs measured sRAGE in 4,400 REGARDS participants who attended both visits. This analysis included participants with sRAGE levels and no prevalent hypertension. Hypertension was defined as BP ≥140/90 mm Hg or use of antihypertensive medications. Poisson regression estimated relative risk (RR) of incident hypertension by serum sRAGE quartiles in models adjusting for known confounders. Results: Among the 1803 participants (mean (SD] age 62 [8] years, 55% Women, 25% Black race) incident hypertension occurred in 35% (46% Black and 32% White participants). Median (IQR) sRAGE was 1114 pg/ml (206 to 4256) in Black and 1600 pg/ml (380 to 5500) in White adults. Models were stratified by race because of an sRAGE*race interaction on incident hypertension. Higher sRAGE was associated with lower hypertension risk in White participants in all models ( Table ). There was no association between sRAGE and hypertension in Black adults. Conclusions: Higher serum sRAGE was associated with lower hypertension risk in White, but not Black, adults when adjusted for known risk factors. Whether modifying sRAGE affects hypertension risk is unclear.