Issue 130 Item 3 People with Diabetes Have Increased Arterial Stiffness

Diabetics have decreased flow-mediated dilatation and increased arterial stiffness compared to non-diabetics, researchers in India have found. These functional changes in diabetics correlate well with the structural changes of the arteries measured by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), report Dr Radhakrishnan Ravikumar and colleagues from the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation, Gopalapuram, Chennai, India.

Fifty diabetics and 50 age- and sex-matched non-diabetics, all recruited from the Chennai Urban Population Study, took part in this comparison of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) and augmentation index (AI) between the two groups and the correlation of these measurements with carotid IMT.

The researchers determined IMT of the common carotid artery and FMD of the brachial artery with high-resolution B-mode ultrasonography. The Sphygmocor apparatus was used for the AI measure.

The diabetics’ mean AI was significantly higher than that of the non-diabetics, but their FMD values were significantly lower. Indeed, at any given age point, the diabetics had significantly higher AI and lower FMD values than did the non-diabetics.

In the total population, AI and FMD showed a correlation with age, fasting plasma glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin and IMT.

Among the non-diabetic subjects, FMD and AI showed a strong correlation with IMT.

There was also a strong correlation between FMD and age and systolic blood pressure, whereas AI showed a correlation with fasting plasma glucose in the diabetics.

In both groups, AI values increased and FMD values decreased with an increase in quartiles of IMT.

Further analysis (multivariate linear regression) in the total study population showed age and glycosylated haemoglobin were the risk factors linked with AI and FMD, as was diastolic blood pressure with AI. American Journal of Cardiology Volume 90, Issue 7, Pages 702-707.