OBJECTIVE -Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV), as an indicator of atherosclerosis in impaired fasting glucose (IFG), was studied in 232 subjects randomly selected from inhabitants of two rural communities in Japan.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -BMI, systolic blood pressure (SBP), fasting blood glucose (FBS), lipid parameters, ankle brachial pressure index (ABI), and baPWV were measured in each subject. ABI and baPWV were measured using the recently developed device, form ABI/PWV. The subjects were divided into three groups according FBS level: a normal group consisting of subjects with FBS Ͻ110 mg/dl, an IFG group consisting of subjects with FBS 110 -125 mg/dl, and a diabetic group consisting of subjects with FBS Ն126 mg/dl and subjects taking hypoglycemic agents. The parameters in the three groups were compared.RESULTS -It was found that the baPWV value increased with increasing plasma glucose level. Significant differences were found between the baPWV values in the normal and IFG groups (1,518 vs. 1,673 cm/s, P ϭ 0.01) and in the normal and diabetic groups (1,518 vs. 1,771 cm/s, P Ͻ 0.0001). The results of multiple regression analysis showed that FBS was closely related to baPWV as well as to age and SBP. CONCLUSIONS -The relationship between IFG and atherosclerosis remains controversial. Further studies are needed to evaluate whether strict control of blood glucose level in patients with IFG will result in the prevention of atherosclerosis progression. Diabetes Care 26:437-440, 2003M uch interest has been shown over the past few decades in aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) as a noninvasive method for assessing atherosclerosis, and there have been many recent reports on PWV and the development of atherosclerotic disease (1-4). In this study, we investigated the usefulness of PWV as an indicator of early-stage atherosclerosis in impaired fasting glucose (IFG) in inhabitants of two rural communities in Japan by using a new device for measuring PWV.RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS -The subjects included 232 men (mean age 65.2 Ϯ 9.5 years) selected from 1,479 inhabitants of the towns of Tanno and Sobetsu in Hokkaido who underwent medical examinations in 2000. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure, BMI, and levels of fasting blood glucose (FBS), HbA 1c , total cholesterol, triglyceride, and HDL were measured in all subjects. Bilateral brachial-ankle PWV (baPWV) was measured in all subjects using a new device, form ABI/ PWV (BP-203RPE; Nihon Colin).Form ABI/PWV is a device with four cuffs that can simultaneously measure blood pressure levels in both arms and both legs and automatically calculate the ankle brachial pressure index (ABI). This device can also record pulse waves by sensors in the cuffs, store data on the start point of each pulse wave in the right arm and both legs in memory, record the time difference between transmission time to arm and transmission time to ankle as "transmission time," calculate the transmission distance from the right arm to each ankle according to body height, and...

We assessed the amount of visceral fat using ultrasonography (US) and studied its relationship to cardiovascular disease risk factors, particularly blood pressure. The subjects in the first study were 45 male and 61 female outpatients. We measured the visceral fat area (VFA) of each subject using abdominal CT and waist circumference (WC), and visceral fat distance (VFD) using US. The subjects in the second study were 353 male and 457 female inhabitants of a rural community, for whom VFD and WC were measured. We divided subjects into tertiles based on VFD and WC, and studied the relationship between each group and individual risk factors. In an analysis of outpatient subjects, the correlation coefficient between VFA and VFD was satisfactory: r =0.660 for men and r =0.643 for women. In the analysis of the rural subjects, the high VFD group had a significantly higher odds ratio than the low VFD group in high blood pressure (

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The results suggest that adiponectin plays a role in lipid metabolism and correlates with atherosclerosis either directly or through insulin resistance.