Skeletal muscle blood flow. A possible link between insulin resistance and blood pressure.

Insulin resistance has recently been found to be a common feature of essential hypertension. We have tested the hypothesis that reduced skeletal muscle blood flow in response to insulin may at least partially account for the wide range of insulin sensitivity observed in normotensive subjects. To this end, we studied 19 lean (body mass index < or = 27) subjects exhibiting basal mean arterial pressures ranging from 58 to 110 mm Hg. All subjects were normotensive with the exception of one. Each subject was studied at baseline and during a hyperinsulinemic (600 milliunits/m2 per minute) euglycemic clamp to quantitate insulin sensitivity. Mean arterial pressure was monitored invasively, and both leg (muscle) blood flow and cardiac output were measured by indicator dilution techniques, allowing the determination of both systemic and leg (or muscle) vascular resistance. In response to hyperinsulinemia, both cardiac output and leg blood flow increased approximately 37% and 80% (p < 0.01), respectively. Rates of insulin-mediated glucose uptake were inversely correlated with the baseline mean arterial pressure (r = -0.62, p < 0.01). The individual increment in leg blood flow above baseline in response to insulin was inversely proportional to the height of the baseline mean arterial pressure (r = -0.59, p < 0.01). Mean arterial pressure and insulin-mediated glucose uptake were not correlated with either age or body fat content.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)