Exposure to inorganic arsenic and hypertension among non-diabetic Mexican women.

Objective: To assess the association between hypertension (HTA) prevalence and the urinary levels of inorganic arsenic (iAs) and its metabolites in north Mexican women without type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Materials and methods: We included 150 self-reported hypertensive women without T2DM, matched by age with 300 women without diagnosis of HTA and T2DM. Women were interviewed regarding lifestyle, sociodemographic, and clinical characteristics. Urinary iAs metabolites were measured by high performance liquid chromatography inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and methylation efficiency parameters were estimated. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to evaluate the associations.

Results: Total arsenic minus arsenobetaine concentrations in urine varied from 0.57 to 303.29 μg/L, with a median of 12.90 μg/L. The adjusted model showed a significant negative association between HTA prevalence and monomethylarsonic acid (MMA) percentage (OR T3 vs. T1: 0.52; 95%CI: 0.31,0.86; p for trend: 0.03) and a significant positive association with the secondary methylation index (OR T3 vs.T1: 1.94; 95%CI: 1.17,3.22; p for trend: <0.01).

Conclusions: We suggest that arsenic metabolism played an essential part in these associations and recognize the need to elucidate underlying mechanisms.