Correlation between BMI and Blood Pressure with Arterial Stiffness among Middle Aged Offspring of Diabetic Parents

In India there is a need to reduce the cardiovascular morbidity due to diabetes in predisposed individuals as diabetes is fast gaining the status of a potential epidemic with more than 62 million diabetic individuals currently diagnosed with the disease ^{(1, 2)} So we aimed to correlate BMI and systolic blood pressure with arterial stiffness among the normoglycemic offspring of type 2 diabetic parents. Noninvasive method of measuring arterial stiffness can be applied to assess the elasticity of the vessel wall and reduce the cardiovascular morbidity.

Cross sectional observational study.

N= 100 males, Age group 35–45 years. All participants had a sedentary life style, blood pressure and glycemic status were measured. Subjects with history of peripheral vascular disease, smokers and any other illness that affects arterial compliance were excluded. Arterial stiffness was assessed from Augmentation index (AI) and stiffness index (SI). AI and SI was measured using IR1 model digital finger tip photo pulse plethysmograph.

Mean age = 37 ±2 years, Mean BMI = 25± 3, Mean SBP = 124± 4, Mean Stiffness index = 7.4 ±1.4 m/s, Mean Augmentation index= 48 ±2.8%. Pearson correlation was applied BMI correlated positively with both augmentation index and stiffness index with r value is +0.215 and + 0.406 respectively. Systolic blood pressure(SBP) correlated positively with both augmentation index and stiffness index with r value is +0.391 and + 0.597 respectively.

We conclude that increase in arterial wall stiffness was observed with increase in BMI and systolic blood pressure which might be the consequences of metabolic regulation, inflammatory pathways and other mechanisms.