Relationship between left ventricular remodeling,carotid remodeling and insulin resistance in essential hypertension

Objective To study the relationship between the left ventricular remodeling,carotid remodeling and the insulin resistance(IR) in essential hypertension(EH) patients.Methods Myocardial integrated backscatter(IBS),cyclic variation of IBS(CVIB) of interventricular septum,left ventricular mass index(LVMI),intima-media thickness in common carotid artery(CCA-IMT),its bifurcation(BIMT) and plaque were measured on echocardiography in 63 EH patients and 30 normal control subjects.Insulin levels were measured by specific radioimmunoassay and the insulin sensitive index(ISI) was calculated.Results(1) LVMI,IBS,CCA-IMT,BIMT and the prevalence of carotid plaque were higher in EH group and ISI was lower in EH group than those in normal control group(P0.05);(2)There was a positive correlation between LVMI and IMT,BIMT,IBS(r=0.536,0.506,P0.05 respectively) and a negative correlation between ISI and IMT,BIMT(r=-0.452,-0.498,P0.05 respectively) in EH group.Conclusion There is a positive correlation between LVMI,IMT,BIMT and ISI in EH.IR possibly plays an important role in the left ventricular remodeling and carotid remodeling of EH.