title: Plasma endothelin levels in NIDDM patients with macroangiopathy.
abstract: To determine whether plasma endothelin, a potent vasoconstrictive peptide, is elevated in NIDDM patients, we compared a group of 15 NIDDM patients with macroangiopathy of mean age 60.60 +/- 2.33 years with 15 NIDDM randomly selected matched patients without macroangiopathy. Plasma endothelin levels were significantly increased in NIDDM patients with macroangiopathy (4.22 +/- 0.57 pmol/L) and in NIDDM patients without macroangiopathy (3.81 +/- 0.51 pmol/L). Although endothelin values did not differ between NIDDM groups, both represented significant difference from control values (2.46 +/- 0.24 pmol/L). No significant correlations were found between plasma endothelin and age (rs = 0.11), duration of diabetes mellitus (rs = 0.06), BMI (rs = 0.19), plasma glucose (rs = 0.15), plasma fructosamine (rs = 0.02). These findings confirm that in diabetes mellitus a primary disturbance in endothelin production from vascular endothelium exists as an early phenomenon rather than a result of advanced stage of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Istituto di Clinica Medica, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donatelli
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Colletti
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Bucalo
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000097:blood*; D003925:Diabetic Angiopathies / Q000097:blood*; D016232:Endothelins / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011897:Random Allocation; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D016232:Endothelins