Association between salt sensitivity and insulin concentrations in patients with hypertension

This study was performed in 28 patients with mild to moderate hypertension, classified as being either salt sensitive or salt resistant on the basis of the percent decrement in mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) seen 7 days after daily salt intake was decreased from 220 to 30 mmol/L. Ten patients had a percent decrease of MAP > 10% and were defined as being salt sensitive. Salt resistance was defined as a percent decrease in MAP of < 3% and eight patients satisfied this criterion. Both plasma glucose and insulin concentrations following a 75-g oral glucose challenge were significantly higher after the high-salt diet in the salt-sensitive patients. Furthermore, there were correlations of marginal statistical significance between the decrease in MAP after the low-salt diet and the plasma glucose (r = 0.32, P < .10) and insulin (r = 0.38, P < .06) responses to oral glucose. These data are consistent with the view that there is an association between resistance to insulin-mediated glucose disposal and salt sensitivity in patients with high blood pressure.