Clinical and Translational Research
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 16, 2024; 12(5): 880-890
Published online Feb 16, 2024. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v12.i5.880
Causal associations between gastroesophageal reflux disease and essential hypertension: A bidirectional Mendelian randomization study
Ning Wei, Ming-Hui Liu, Yu-Hu Song
Ning Wei, Ming-Hui Liu, Yu-Hu Song, Department of Gastroenterology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430022, Hubei Province, China
Author contributions: Song YH and Wei N concept of the study and grant obtain; Liu MH data analysis; Liu MH and Wei H preparation of manuscript; Song YH and Wei N administrative, technical, or material support; study supervision; all the authors read and approved the paper.
Supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (General Program), No. 82070631.
Institutional review board statement: We used publicly accessible GWAS summary data or published trial data for our analyses. For this manuscript, no original data were gathered, and no ethics committee permission was needed.
Clinical trial registration statement: We used publicly accessible GWAS summary data or published trial data for our analyses. For this manuscript, no original data were gathered, and no ethics committee permission was needed. The institutional ethics review committees for each of the included studies gave their approval, and all participants gave their written informed permission.
Informed consent statement: We used publicly accessible GWAS summary data or published trial data for our analyses. For this manuscript, no original data were gathered, and no ethics committee permission was needed. The institutional ethics review committees for each of the included studies gave their approval, and all participants gave their written informed permission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Yu-Hu Song, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Gastroenterology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, No. 1277 Jiefang Avenue, Wuhan 430022, Hubei Province, China. yuhusong@163.com
Received: October 16, 2023
Peer-review started: October 16, 2023
First decision: November 28, 2023
Revised: December 12, 2023
Accepted: January 16, 2024
Article in press: January 16, 2024
Published online: February 16, 2024
Processing time: 106 Days and 19.5 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Clinical studies have reported that patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) have a higher prevalence of hypertension.

AIM

To performed a bidirectional Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis to investigate the causal link between GERD and essential hypertension.

METHODS

Eligible single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were selected, and weighted median, inverse variance weighted (IVW) as well as MR egger (MR-Egger) regression were used to examine the potential causal association between GERD and hypertension. The MR-Pleiotropy RESidual Sum and Outlier analysis was used to detect and attempt to reduce horizontal pleiotropy by removing outliers SNPs. The MR-Egger intercept test, Cochran’s Q test and “leave-one-out” sensitivity analysis were performed to evaluate the horizontal pleiotropy, heterogeneities, and stability of single instrumental variable.

RESULTS

IVW analysis exhibited an increased risk of hypertension (OR = 1.46, 95%CI: 1.33-1.59, P = 2.14E-16) in GERD patients. And the same result was obtained in replication practice (OR = 1.002, 95%CI: 1.0008-1.003, P = 0.000498). Meanwhile, the IVW analysis showed an increased risk of systolic blood pressure (β = 0.78, 95%CI: 0.11-1.44, P = 0.021) and hypertensive heart disease (OR = 1.68, 95%CI: 1.36-2.08, P = 0.0000016) in GERD patients. Moreover, we found an decreased risk of Barrett's esophagus (OR = 0.91, 95%CI: 0.83-0.99, P = 0.043) in essential hypertension patients.

CONCLUSION

We found that GERD would increase the risk of essential hypertension, which provided a novel prevent and therapeutic perspectives of essential hypertension.

Keywords: Gastroesophageal reflux disease, Essential hypertension, Hypertensive heart disease, Mendelian randomization study

Core Tip: This study used a method of bidirectional Mendelian randomization, and its results highlighted that gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) was positively associated with the risk of essential hypertension, suggesting a new prevent strategy and therapeutic perspectives of essential hypertension in patients with GERD.