Peripheral arterial circulation in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance

Employees of a telephone company in Naples (N = 1376) were screened by oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT, 75 g). All those with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (N = 69) plus 138 normoglycemic controls, matched by sex, age, and body mass index (BMI, kg/m2), were selected to participate in this study. All participants were retested by OGTT under the same conditions as the first test. The prevalence of signs of impaired peripheral arterial circulation (IPAC) were investigated by different methods: Rose questionnaire on intermittent claudication, digital pulse plethysmography (inclination time), and ankle blood pressure measurement (ankle/arm systolic blood pressure). Very few persons had symptoms of IPAC: 2 (3.1%) and 3 (2.4%), respectively, in IGT subjects and controls. No difference in the prevalence of abnormal vascular parameters was detected between IGT and normoglycemic individuals according to either digital pulse plethysmography (6.1% versus 8.8%, P = 0.36) or ankle blood pressure measurement (10.8% versus 9.6%, chi 2 = 0.06, NS); similar results were obtained when the prevalence of abnormalities was evaluated according to both methods combined (16.9% versus 16.8%). The finding remained very much the same after controlling for the effect of smoking. Individuals with IGT at both OGTTs were compared with individuals with normoglycemia at both tests: once again no significant difference was detected between the two groups in the prevalence of abnormal vascular findings (22.6% versus 16.7%, chi 2 = 0.66, NS). This suggests that IGT is not associated with increased prevalence of atherosclerotic peripheral arterial disease.