title: Insulin-resistance HCV infection-related affects vascular stiffness in normotensives.
abstract: BACKGROUND AND AIMS. Arterial stiffness evaluated as pulse wave velocity, is an early marker of vascular damage and an independent predictor for cardiovascular events. We investigated if the insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia chronic hepatitis C virus infection-related could influence arterial stiffness. METHODS. We enrolled 260 outpatients matched for age, body mass index, gender, ethnicity: 52 with never-treated uncomplicated chronic hepatitis C virus infection (HCV(+)), 104 never-treated hypertensives (HT) and 104 healthy subjects (NT). Pulse wave velocity was evaluated by a validated system employing high-fidelity applanation tonometry. We also measured: fasting plasma glucose and insulin, total, LDL- and HDL-cholesterol, triglyceride, creatinine, e-GFR-EPI, HOMA, quantitative HCV-RNA. RESULTS. HCV(+) patients with respect to NT had an increased pulse wave velocity (7.9 ± 2.1 vs 6.4 ± 2.1 m/s; P < 0.0001), similar to that observed in HT group (8.8 ± 3.2 m/s). HCV(+) patients, in comparison with NT, had higher triglyceride, creatinine, fasting insulin and HOMA (3.2 ± 1.3 vs 2.5 ± 1.0; P < 0.0001). At linear regression analysis, the correlation between pulse wave velocity and HOMA was similar in HT (r = 0.380, P < 0.0001) and HCV(+) (r = 0.369, P = 0.004) groups. At multiple regression analysis, HOMA resulted the major determinant of pulse wave velocity in all groups, explaining respectively 11.8%, 14.4% and 13.6% of its variation in NT, HT and HCV(+). At correlational analysis hepatitis C virus-RNA and HOMA demonstrated a strong and linear relationship between them, explaining the 72.4% of their variation (P = 0.022). CONCLUSIONS. We demonstrated a significant and direct correlation between HOMA and pulse wave velocity in HCV(+) patients, similar to that observed in hypertensives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy. Electronic address: mariaperticone@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perticone
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Maio
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Eliezer Joseph
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Tassone
authors.affiliation: CNR-IBIM, National Research Council-Institute of Biomedicine, Clinical Epidemiology and Physiopathology of Renal Disease and Hypertension, Reggio Calabria, Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tripepi
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Serena
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Di Cello
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Miceli
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Benedetto
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Caroleo
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sciacqua
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Department of Internal and Specialistic Medicine, University of Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Licata
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Giorgio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sesti
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University Magna Græcia of Catanzaro, Italy.
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Perticone
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D015992:Body Mass Index; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D019698:Hepatitis C, Chronic / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D006946:Hyperinsulinism / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications; D006973:Hypertension; D007328:Insulin / Q000097:blood; D007333:Insulin Resistance; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D063177:Pulse Wave Analysis; D012307:Risk Factors; D059289:Vascular Stiffness
chemical_list: D007328:Insulin
keywords: Arterial stiffness; Chronic hepatitis C virus infection; Insulin resistance