Vessel wall properties of large arteries in uncomplicated IDDM

Patients with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) are at high risk for cardiovascular disease. Arterial distensibility and compliance are vessel wall properties of large arteries. Altered large artery wall properties can be an early feature of vascular dysfunction. This study investigates vessel wall properties in 30 patients with uncomplicated IDDM and 30 matched healthy control subjects.

Vessel wall properties of the elastic common carotid (CCA) and the muscular femoral (FA) and brachial arteries (BA) were measured with a vessel wall movement detector system. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded simultaneously with a semiautomated device. Aortic pulse wave velocity was estimated from the carotido-femoral transit time.

Blood pressure (IDDM patients: 118 +/- 10/69 +/- 5 mmHg), pulse pressure (IDDM patients: 49 +/- 8 mmHg), and heart rate (IDDM patients: 65 +/- 9 beats/min) were similar in IDDM patients and control subjects. No statistically significant changes between IDDM patients and control subjects were found for diameter, distensibility, and compliance of the elastic CCA and the muscular BA. Distensibility (IDDM patients: 16.9 +/- 6.4 10(-3)/kPa; control subjects: 22.4 +/- 11.8 10(-3)/kPa) of the muscular FA was decreased in IDDM (P < 0.05). However, FA compliance (IDDM patients: 0.80 +/- 0.23 mm2/kPa; control subjects: 0.94 +/- 0.41 mm2/kPa) and FA diameter (IDDM patients: 7.87 +/- 1.10 mm; control subjects: 7.57 +/- 1.11 mm) did not differ statistically between IDDM patients and control subjects. Aortic pulse wave velocity was the same in IDDM patients and control subjects (IDDM patients: 5.1 +/- 0.6 m/s). No relation was found between vessel wall properties and duration of disease, actual glucose level, and HbA1c for all three arteries (CCA, BA, and FA). But the groups might have been too small to draw conclusions.

The results of the present study show that in this group of patients with uncomplicated IDDM, vessel wall properties of elastic and muscular large arteries were not obviously reduced when compared with healthy control subjects. However, distensibility of the FA was lower in IDDM patients. Early atherosclerotic changes in IDDM frequently occur at this site. A difference related to the duration of diabetes could not be excluded.