CHANGE IN BLOOD-PRESSURE DURING PUBERTAL INSULIN-RESISTANCE

To examine the levels and relationships of blood pressure and insulin during puberty, blood pressure and serum insulin were measured in 3596 subjects, aged 3-18 y, whose pubertal status was graded according to the Tanner classification. The same study protocol was repeated in two follow-up surveys 3 and 6 y later for 2991 6-21-y-old subjects and 27 99 9-24-y-old subjects, respectively. There was a 37-66% increase in i nsulin at Tanner stage 3 (pubic hair) among the female subjects and at Tanner stage 5 (pubic hair) among the male subjects, after which insu lin started to decrease. The mean systolic and diastolic blood pressur e increased steadily throughout puberty. The rise in blood pressure co ntinued during early adulthood, despite the decrease in serum insulin. The correlation between systolic blood pressure and insulin measured in the same year was weak at each pubertal stage after standardization for weight, except among the female subjects at mid puberty. There wa s no relation between diastolic blood pressure and insulin. Adult syst olic blood pressure could be predicted by pubertal insulin among the m ale subjects after adjustment for age and weight (partial correlation coefficient 0.21), but among the female subjects this relation was tri vial (partial correlation coefficient 0.08). We conclude that the corr elation between insulin and actual blood pressure vanishes during pube rty, whereas pubertal insulin and future adult male systolic blood pre ssure seem to correlate.