South Korea: TyG Index and Blood Pressure Study

A higher triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index is positively associated with a risk of increased blood pressure (BP) in normal healthy people, a recent study has shown.

The study, published in Diabetology & Metabolic Syndrome, indicates that the TyG index might serve as a potential hypertension (HTN) predictor.

Insulin resistance (IR) is an essential contributor to hypertension development, and the TyG index has been proposed as a reliable, simple marker of IR. The TyG index is calculated using fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and triglycerides. Considering this, Dong-Hwa Lee and colleagues from South Korea aimed to examine the association between the TyG index and increased BP in a large general population.

The study enrolled 15,721 adults from the 2016–2019 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey with no history of cardiometabolic diseases. Participants were grouped into quartiles based on the TyG index, and blood pressure was classified as normal BP, elevated BP, pre-HTN, and HTN. Multivariate multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the associations of the TyG index with BP categories with normal BP as the reference group.

Study Findings

• The mean systolic/diastolic BP and HTN prevalence increased with the TyG index.
• The continuous TyG index had a strong dose-response relationship with an increased risk of elevated BP, pre-HTN, and HTN.
• The highest TyG index quartile was significantly associated with higher odds of having high BP (odds ratio [OR], 1.52), pre-HTN (OR, 2.22), and HTN (OR, 4.24) compared with the lowest TyG index quartile.

The findings from the population-based cross-sectional study showed that the TyG index is positively related to BP elevation. The significant associations between the TyG index and BP were maintained even after the adjustments for conventional risk factors. The researchers noted that the study participants were healthy people without any history of cardiovascular disease, hypertension, or renal failure or not taking anti-diabetic or antihyperlipidemic medications.

"These results indicate that the TyG index is independently associated with blood pressure and may help identify and follow individuals at hypertension risk," the researchers wrote in their conclusion. "There is a need for further studies to longitudinally investigate the cause-effect relationship between the TyG index and BP."

Reference

Lee, DH., Park, J.E., Kim, S.Y. et al. Association between the triglyceride-glucose (TyG) index and increased blood pressure in normotensive subjects: a population-based study. Diabetol Metab Syndr 14, 161 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13098-022-00927-5