Background: Obesity induces oxidative stress and inflammation, which may lead to arterial stiffness and hypertension. The relationship of white blood cell count (WBC) and anthropometric indices with arterial stiffness index (ASI) and blood pressure was evaluated in this study.
Methods: Thirty male subjects aged between 35-55 years were selected in each of normotensive, prehypertensive and hypertensive groups. Their weight, height, waist circumference (WC) and hip circumference (HC) were measured according to the WHO guidelines. BMI, waist hip ratio (WHR), waist stature ratio (WSR) and conicity index (CI) were calculated. ASI was calculated from digital volume pulse recorded by photoplethysmography with iWorx-214 physiological interface system. The white blood cell count and differential was done. One way ANOVA followed by Post Hoc Tukey's Test was applied to determine the difference between the groups. Pearson's coefficient was calculated to study the correlation. Statistically, p value < 0.05 was considered significant.
Results: There was statistically significant difference in WHR (0.000), WC (0.003) and ASI (0.000) between the study groups but not BMI (0.223). Amongst the anthropometric measurements, WHR and WC had positive correlation with the systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The WBC and absolute neutrophil count correlated significantly with WHR and WC but not with ASI and blood pressure.
Conclusions: The central obesity is a more robust risk factor for arterial stiffness and blood pressure than BMI. The inflammation may be involved in pathogenesis of visceral obesity and arterial stiffness that may be determined by elevated white blood cell counts.