Whole blood filterability in elderly obese women.

In order to establish whether obesity alters whole blood filterability, the corrected whole blood filtration (VRBC) was measured in 54 elderly obese women (mean age +/- SE = 67 +/- 2 years) without (n = 15) or with associated cardiovascular risk factors such as impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) (n = 11), non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) (n = 14) or hypertension (n = 14). Twenty-two age matched women with normal body weight participated as controls. VRBC values were similar in normal controls and obese women with normal glucose tolerance (NGT), whereas they were significantly lower in obese subjects with hypertension, NIDDM or IGT. When subjects with normal and impaired glucose tolerance were combined, a significant negative correlation was found between glucose incretory areas during OGTT and VRBC values. These data demonstrate that obesity per se does not alter whole blood filterability; furthermore, our results indicate that this modification is a precocious and sensitive index of altered glucose metabolism.