Abstract

A case-control study was conducted to investigate the relationship between blood cadmium, blood zinc and cadmium/zinc ratio and hypertension. Eighty-three hypertensive and seventy-seven normotensive study subjects matched for age and sex were selected from the workers who had no history of job-related cadmium exposure, in Ulsan city and it's vincinity, Korea. The blood cadmium in hypertensive group was 2.90 etag/mL, which was significantly higher than that of control group, 1.99 etag/mL(P<0.01). After stratifing for smoking and age variables, the relationship was still remained. The blood cadmium/zinc ratio in hypertensive group was 2.46, which was significantly higher than that of control group, 1.65(P<0.01). After stratifing for smoking and age variables, the relationship was still remained. There was no significant difference in blood zinc between hypertensive and control group. On multiple logistic regression analysis, the blood cadmium/zinc ratio is highly significant than blood cadmium. In conclusion, there is the possible relationship between blood cadmium level which has been known to be within normal limits and hypertension. But, further cohort studies to define the effect of cadmium on human hypertension are required.

• Keywords: Cadmium;Zinc;Hypertension