The C-Reactive Protein-Triglyceride Glucose Index and Incidence of Cardiovascular Disease Among Individuals with Hypertension: A Nationwide Prospective Cohort Study.

Abstract

Background The C-reactive protein-triglyceride glucose index (CTI) has recently been introduced as a novel composite biomarker that integrates inflammation and insulin resistance. However, the association between CTI and incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) in individuals with hypertension remains unclear. Methods We included 168,186 participants from the UK Biobank in this longitudinal analysis. The primary outcomes were incident coronary heart disease (CHD), atrial fibrillation (AF), heart failure (HF), and stroke. Cox proportional hazards regression was performed to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the associations between CTI and incident CVD outcomes. Results In this study, CTI showed significant positive linear associations with CHD (HR, 1.19; 95% CI, 1.15 to 1.23) and stroke (HR, 1.14; 95% CI, 1.07 to 1.21), whereas nonlinear associations were observed for AF (HR, 1.08; 95% CI, 1.04 to 1.13) and HF (HR, 1.36; 95% CI, 1.28 to 1.44) among participants with hypertension. Furthermore, subgroup and sensitivity analyses confirmed the robustness of these associations. Conclusion Our findings showed that elevated CTI levels were robustly associated with increased risks of CHD, AF, HF, and stroke, suggesting that CTI may serve as a promising predictive marker for CVD in individuals with hypertension.