Evaluation of the relationship between blood sugar level and stiffness of artery by means of ultrasonography: a plot study / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the relationship of glycaemia level and the artery stiffness by means of ultrasonography. Methods Among the individuals selected for screening for impaired glucose tolerance, the systolic and diastolic diameters of both common carotid arteries in a single cardiac cycle, and the intima-media thickness were measured. Based on these measured parameters the artery compliance (AC), stiffness index and Yang's elastic Model (YEM) were calculated. Both fasting blood sugar level and that of 2 hours after 75g glucose challenge were quintiled so as to compare the arteriosclerosis surrogates. Linear correlation and partial linear regression were used to analyze the relationship of both fasting and post-challenge blood sugar levels with the three surrogates. Finally, those surrogates were also compared among different glucose tolerance categories. Normal glucose tolerance (NGT, n=97), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT, n=51) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM, n=73) were classified by the previous results of 75g oral glucose tolerance test. Results The AC decreased, and SI and YEM elevated significantly after the third quintile of fasting glycaemia, while the similar changes were found after the fourth quintile of 2 hour glycaemia. Both fasting and post-challenge glycaemia correlated inversely with AC and positively with SI and YEM. Partial correlation analysis showed that the significance of the correlation of fasting glucose with the arteriosclerosis surrogates disappeared but that of post-challenge glucose with those surrogates remained. In different categories of glucose tolerance, AC decreased but YEM rose significantly in IGT and T2DM when compared with NGT. The SI of T2DM was higher than of NGT. However the three surrogates remained similar between IGT and T2DM. Conclusions Artery stiffness was enhanced with the increase in fasting or post-challenge glycaemic levels. Post-challenge glycaemia was a better determinant than fasting glycaemia. The degree of arteriosclerosis in IGT was higher than that in NGT, but was similar to that of T2DM.