Endothelial Function and Arterial Stiffness in Uncomplicated Type 1 Diabetes and Healthy Controls and the Impact of Insulin on These Parameters during an Euglycemic Clamp

BACKGROUND In addition to its role in glucose metabolism, insulin has shown to exert numerous vascular effects, and an impaired vascular function of insulin is assumed to be a major contributor in the development of vascular complications. Arterial augmentation (AP) and the augmentation index (Aix) are surrogate parameters of arterial stiffness and are commonly used as predictors for cardiovascular risk. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of insulin on arterial stiffness and parameters of endothelial function in patients with type 1 diabetes and healthy control subjects. METHODS Fourteen patients with type 1 diabetes (six male, eight female) with a mean age of 36.6 +/- 11.8 …