Peripheral Arterial Compliance Differs Between Races

Abstract

Patients with type 2 diabetes have two to three times the risk of dying prematurely from cardiovascular disease than their nondiabetic counterparts (1). Many studies have shown that arterial compliance is reduced in type 2 diabetes and that arterial stiffness increases with deteriorating glucose tolerance status, even before the onset of type 2 diabetes (2–4). In a previous brief report, we studied Afro-Caribbean and white Caucasian subjects with diabetes and found a decrease in peripheral arterial compliance in the Afro-Caribbean subjects (5). We also reported an accelerated rate of aging in the elastic arteries of diabetic patients reaching a plateau by the age of …