Blood pressure and insulin resistance: role for microvascular function? [Cardiovasc Res 2002;53:271–276

Abstract

In a recent issue of Cardiovascular Research , Irving et al. [1] reported on the relationships among microvascular function, blood pressure, and insulin resistance in healthy men. The main objective was to test the hypothesis that defects in microvascular function could explain the relationship between elevated blood pressure and insulin resistance. They report that higher systolic blood pressure was associated with insulin resistance, lower dermal capillary density at rest and during venous occlusion, and impaired maximum dermal blood flow after heating, but not with dilator responses to acetylcholine. Insulin resistance, as assessed by HOMA, did not correlate with indices of microvascular function or structure. It is concluded that the association between hypertension and insulin resistance is unlikely to be explained by altered microvascular function and structure. In contrast, we have demonstrated that higher systolic blood pressure was associated with insulin resistance, capillary recruitment during post-occlusive reactive hyperaemia (PRH), and dilator responses to acetylcholine in both normotensive [2] and hypertensive subjects …