Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Glucose intolerance produces structural and functional changes in the arterial wall which contribute to the excess cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The present study investigated association between glucose tolerance status and arterial stiffness in subjects with normal and impaired glucose regulation (IGR).

Methods: The study group consisted of 283 Caucasian subjects, including 111 subjects with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), 61 subjects classed as impaired fasting glucose (IFG) according of the new fasting blood glucose (FBG) cutoff point of 100 mg/d and 111 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. All patients were evaluated for glucose, HbA1C, insulin, lipid profile, hs-CRP, HOMA-IR. PWV and AI were performed as a noninvasive recording of the two artery sites pressure waveform using SphygmoCor (version 7.1, AtCor Medical, Sydney, Australia).

Results: PWV values increased significantly and consistently with deterioration of glucose tolerance status from NGT to IFG and DM. AI and central arterial pressure differed significantly between groups and increased from group 1 to group 3 in a continuous fashion. Arterial stiffness parameters remain significantly higher in both IFG and DM groups compared to subjects with NGT after adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors and concomitant medications. The positive correlations between FBG and arterial stiffness parameters were found in all groups.

Conclusions: Arterial stiffness parameters varied significantly across subgroups of patients with different degree of IGR, such that more alterations in glucose homeostasis were consistently associated with an increased arterial stiffness. Deteriorating glucose tolerance was associated with an increased PWV, AI and central aortic pressure even after correction for cardiovascular confounders.