Association of cytomegalovirus infection with hypertension risk: a meta-analysis

Abstract

Summary Background Information regarding association between cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and essential hypertension (EH) risk is not consistent across studies. Therefore, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the association in detail. Methods We comprehensively searched the published literature from the PubMed and Embase databases for any study analyzing the association between CMV and EH risk. A random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95 % confidence interval (CI). Results Three studies involving 9657 patients were included in the meta-analysis, and the results showed a significantly increased risk of EH in patients with CMV infection. Overall, 79.3 % of the hypertension patients were CMV-positive, which was significantly higher than the percentage for controls (OR = 1.39, 95 % CI = 0.95–2.05, P = 0.017). There was significant heterogeneity among the studies included (I2 = 70.5 %). The funnel plot and Egger’s test also indicated no publication bias. Conclusions The results showed a significant association between CMV and EH, which indicates that CMV infection is a possible cause of EH.