Increased waist/hip ratio, metabolic disturbances, and family history of hypertension.

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To test whether nonhypertensive subjects with a two-generation positive family history of hypertension (PFH) are characterized by disturbed glucose metabolism, 16 men (38 +/- 6 years old) with PFH and 25 subjects matched for age and with negative family histories of hypertension (NFH) were recruited. Blood pressure; serum lipids; erythrocyte transmembrane sodium transport; and the glucose, plasma insulin, and C-peptide responses to an oral glucose tolerance test were investigated. Subjects with PFH had higher blood pressure, body weight, body mass index (BMI), waist/hip ratio (WHR), and abdominal sagittal diameter than subjects with NFH. Baseline blood glucose, plasma insulin, serum lipids, and transmembrane sodium transport did not differ between the two groups. Blood glucose levels at 90 and 120 minutes after oral glucose were significantly higher in subjects with PFH than in controls. Blood glucose adjusted for BMI and WHR at 90 minutes was significantly related to a PFH. Plasma insulin level at 90 minutes during the glucose load was significantly higher in subjects with PFH. In multivariate analysis, WHR was significantly related to baseline blood pressure, insulin, and cholesterol, whereas BMI was significantly associated with the insulin response to the oral glucose tolerance test. Transmembrane sodium transport was significantly related to blood pressure only. In conclusion, subjects with PFH are characterized by increased body weight and BMI, increased visceral fat accumulation, and an altered blood glucose response to an oral glucose load. It was also shown that WHR was related to blood pressure and that BMI was more related to cholesterol and response to glucose loading than a PFH was.