[Relationship between blood insulin and arterial hypertension in obese adults]

The well know fact that high blood pressure and impaired glucose tolerance are frequently associated with obesity has suggested that hyperinsulinemia could represent one of the possible pathogenetic connections between obesity and systodiastolic hypertension. With the aim of verifying this hypothesis 67 obese subjects (36 hypertensive and 31 normotensive), males, were admitted to our study. All of the subjects underwent standard OGTT in order to measure their glycemic and insulinemic levels. No differences were found between two groups, as regard age and the degree of obesity; blood pressure values were significantly different (p less than 0.01). No significative differences were detected for glycemic and insulinemic levels between normotensive and hypertensive subjects; basal hyperinsulinemia was detected in a similar percentage (16.6 vs 19.3%) in the two groups. Under these circumstances it is not possible to confirm that hyperinsulinemia is the prominent link between obesity and high blood pressure, as previously observed by others.