Objective To assess the causal relationship between cervical vertebra related disorders and essential hypertension using a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study approach. Methods The research data comes from the genome-wide association study dataset. Four types of cervical vertebra related disorders: cervicalgia, cervical disc disorders, cervical root disorders, injury of nerves and spinal cord at neck level, as well as data on essential hypertension, were selected for the study. Relevant single nucleotide polymorphisms were selected as instrumental variables to assess the causal relationship between cervical vertebra related disorders and essential hypertension mainly by inverse variance weighted model ratio. Cochran's Q test was used to detect heterogeneity, MR-Egger intercept term and MR-PRESSO was used to detect multiplicity, and leave-one-out method was used for sensitivity analysis. Results Cervicalgia had a positive causal relationship with the essential hypertension (OR=1.01, 95%CI 1.00 to1.02, P=0.019). Essential hypertension had a positive causal relationship with the cervical disc disorders (OR=4.08, 95%CI 1.57 to10.61, P=0.004). There was no significant causal relationship between cervical root disorders, injury of nerves and spinal cord at neck level and essential hypertension. Reliability assessment indicates that the study results were reliable. Conclusion Cervicalgia is a risk factor for essential hypertension; Essential hypertension is a risk factor for cervical disc lesions; There is no correlation between cervical root disorders, injury of nerves and spinal cord at neck level and essential hypertension.

Citation： ZHONG Wenqing, ZHOU Shibo, YU Xing. Causal association between cervical vertebra related disorders and essential hypertension: a bidirectional two-sample Mendelian randomization study. Chinese Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2024, 24(8): 887-892. doi: 10.7507/1672-2531.202311185 Copy