[Blood glucose and insulin in arterial hypertension. The elderly hypertensive patient]

The clinical importance of relationship between insulin resistance, hyperinsulinemia and high blood pressure is not yet fully understood. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of age in the relation between hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia and hypertension (HT). Two groups of patients with moderate to severe essential hypertension, aged < 65 (n = 40) and > or = 65 (n = 55) were compared with two other groups of normotensive subjects (NT) matched for sex (n = 14) and age (n = 18). The radioimmunoassay method and glucose oxidase methods were used to evaluate plasma insulin and plasma glucose concentrations. The global analysis shows: The plasma glucose level was significantly lower (p < 0.02) in NT group (n = 32; glycemia: 67.52 +/- 44 mg/dl) than in the HT group (n = 95; glycemia: 86.25 +/- 34.7 mg/dl. Further more the plasma insulin level in NT (3.37 +/- 3.18 microU/ml) was also lower than in HT (4.29 +/- 3.08 microU/ml) although without statistical significance. The patients (HT) aged < 65 years old had higher glycemia (85.76 +/- 26.8 mg/dl) and insulinemia (4.92 +/- 3.56) than NT of same age (glycemia: 59.0 +/- 11.8 mg/dl, insulinemia: 2.86 +/- 1.86), respectively p < 0.001 and p < 0.05. In HT aged > or = 65 the glycemia (82.38 +/- (9.67 mg/dl) was higher than in the NT matched group (65.5 +/- 20.36 mg/dl), p < 0.01, but plasma insulin was not different in the two groups (3.88 +/- 2.63 and 3.80 +/- 2.27 microU/ml).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)