Association of Haptoglobin Phenotypes and Hypertension in Patients Attending Outpatient Medical Clinic at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH), Lusaka, Zambia/ Masauso Moses Phiri
Background: The pathogenesis of human hypertension is complex and multifactorial. Haptoglobin genes have been cited as risk factors in the development of hypertension. Haptoglobin is an α2-glycoprotein acute phase reactant that binds to free haemoglobin and forms a stoichiometrically stable complex. The impact of ethnic and racial differences on hypertension underscores the need for the identification of the genetic factors that contribute to differences in susceptibility to and the pathology of the disease. Recent studies in humans have shown that there is an association between haptoglobin (Hp) genes and hypertension, however this association varies between populations. In Zambian and most of African populations, no associations have been reported to date. Objectives: To investigate the association between haptoglobin serum levels and haptoglobin phenotypes, and hypertension in hypertensive and normotensives clients at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. Methodology: A descriptive non-interventional cross-sectional study was carried out at the University Teaching Hospital, Medical Clinic. 53 consecutive hypertensive subjects that attend clinic 5 at UTH were enrolled with written consent from each subject and 55 non-hypertensive subjects were recruited from within the hospital community for comparison reasons in the study. The blood pressure, weight, height were taken and venous blood was drawn for haptoglobin quantification and phenotyping using the automated clinical chemistry analyser, which is the Horiba ABX Pentra 400. The data was entered using SPSS Statistics version 17.0 and exported to Statview for analysis. Results. The t-test showed that there was no significant difference between the two mean levels of serum haptoglobin, p = 0.282. The Hp 2-2 phenotype in the hypertensives and normotensives were 30.0% and 28.0% respectively. The study showed no significance in the association of haptoglobin phenotypes and hypertension. Conclusion: There may be no haptoglobin phenotype that is a risk or protective factor for hypertension in individuals attending the medical clinic at the UTH, Lusaka
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