Zinc and copper in hypertension

In order to evaluate the relationship between zinc and copper and blood pressure levels a case-control study was planned. In hypertensives selected from hospitalized patients and normotensive controls matched for sex, age, smoking habits zinc and copper levels in serum and urine were measured; in the same subjects we also assayed the activity of some zinc and copper dependent enzymes (AP, LDH, MAO) that our previous studies showed significantly related to blood pressure values. The mean levels of zinc found in serum of hypertensives were higher than controls. The preliminary results seem not confirm the higher urinary excretion of copper found in our previous investigation carried out on early untreated hypertensives. Blood pressure levels (both systolic and diastolic) were significantly and positively correlated to copper serum values and to AP activity in hypertensives only. Another interesting findings are the negative and positive correlations found, respectively between zinc/copper ratio in serum and urine and blood pressure only in hypertensives.