Background: The association between apo E isoforms and insulin output during the oral glucose test (OGTT) in 60 non-diabetic, non-obese patients with essential hypertension and in control subjects (non-obese, non-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 output.
Results: The apo E 4/2 phenotype was detected in 32% of hypertensive 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 in HHI (46%) and in NHI (50%) compared with HLI (22%) and NLI (17%) groups.
Conclusion: The results suggest that the determination of phenotypes apo E and insulin output may contribute to an early detection of individuals at high risk of hypertension development.