APO-E ISOFORMS, INSULIN OUTPUT AND PLASMA-LIPID LEVELS IN ESSENTIAL-HYPERTENSION

Background The association between apo E isoforms and insulin output d uring the oral glucose test (OGTT) in 60 non-diabetic, non-obese patie nts with essential hypertension and in control subjects (non-obese, no n-diabetic normotensive subjects) was estimated. Methods According to low or high insulin output during OGTT, the subjects were divided into the following groups: normotensive subjects with low (NLI) and high ( NHI) and hypertensive subjects with low (HLI) and high (HHI) insulin o utput. Results The apo E 4/2 phenotype was detected in 32% of hyperten sive subjects but not in control subjects. The frequency of apo E 3/2 phenotype in hypertensive subjects was 5% and in normotensive subjects 15%. An increased frequency of phenotype apo E 4/3 was noticed both i n HHI (46%) and in NHI (50%) compared with HLI (22%) and NLI (17%) gro ups. Conclusion The results suggest that the determination of phenotyp es apo E and insulin output may contribute to an early detection of in dividuals at high risk of hypertension development.