Shingo Katsuno

An epidemiologic study on the correlation between salt threshold, academic test marks, biochemical data, number of complaints, and personality in women college students.

One hundred nine 19-year-old female students were surveyed as to academic test marks; salt detection and recognition thresholds; serum cholesterol, serum uric acid, serum cortisol, and other biochemical indices in serum; urinary sodium/creatinine and potassium/creatinine, as well as number of complaints based on the Cornell Medical Index (CMI) and personality based on the Yatabe-Guilford (Y-G) test. The salt recognition threshold showed a high negative correlation with serum uric acid concentration and a slight correlation with CMI complaint number, academic test marks, blood pressure, obesity, and serum cholesterol. The subjects with high salt thresholds had relatively passive personalities. Cholesterol, uric acid, hemoglobin, ferritin, and glucose levels in the serum were higher in the group with higher academic marks. These students also had fewer complaints and more of them were type B individuals based on the Y-G test. They also seemed to be under greater stress. In regression analysis, the partial regression coefficient between academic test marks and serum cholesterol was 60 percent higher than that between academic test marks and serum uric acid. Students who lived on campus had 24.8 milligrams per deciliter (15.7 percent) more serum cholesterol and 3.8 micrograms per deciliter (37.7 percent) more serum cortisol than those who commuted from home.

Relation of Serum and Erythrocyte Magnesium Levels to Blood Pressure and a Family History of Hypertension A Follow‐up Study in Japanese Children, 12‐14 Years Old

Abstract. Serum and erythrocyte magnesium concentrations (S‐Mg, E‐Mg) were measured in 122 junior high school students followed up for two years from 12 to 14 years of age, and the relationship to blood pressure and a family history of hypertension were investigated. The subjects who had high S‐Mg and E‐Mg levels at the first examination two years prior tended to show high levels after this follow‐up. There were significant positive correlations between two intraindividual values of S‐Mg and E‐Mg. A similar tendency was found for blood pressure. Tracking phenomena were observed with these measures. The subjects who had high E‐Mg levels at the first examination showed no blood pressure elevation during the two‐ year period. The subjects with a family history of hypertension [FH(+)] showed a higher degree of blood pressure rise during two years than those with no family history [FH(‐)], with a significant difference in systolic blood pressure at the age of 14. E‐Mg tended to be lower in the FH(+) group than in the FH(‐) group with a significant difference in 14‐year‐old girls. These results suggest that a hereditary predisposition to hypertension is related to magnesium metabolism and that intracellular magnesium deficiency may influence blood pressure elevation in the FH(+) children.

An epidemiological study of plasma renin activity in schoolchildren in Japan: distribution and its relation with family history of hypertension

Plasma renin activity (PRA) was determined in a group of 610 Japanese schoolchildren aged 10-14 years in order to investigate the relationship between PRA distribution and a family history of hypertension. Plasma renin activity was higher in the subjects with a family history of hypertension (FH+) than in those without a family history of hypertension (FH-). Systolic blood pressure (SBP) was also higher in the FH+ group than in the FH- group. The FH- group showed a significant negative correlation between PRA and SBP (boys, r = -0.254, P less than 0.01; girls, r = -0.225, P less than 0.01), whereas the FH+ group showed no correlation between PRA and blood pressure. These results suggested that schoolchildren with a family history of hypertension might have an enhanced renin-aldosterone (R-A) system, resulting in elevation of blood pressure.