Haemorheological disturbances in non-insulin-dependent diabetes and the effects of concomitant hypertension

There are many reports in the literature describing haemorheological disturbances associated with diabetes. However, the majority of these studies have concentrated on insulin-dependent, rather than non-insulin dependent diabetes (NIDD). Furthermore, very little attention has been given to the effect of associated hypertension which is a common feature of NIDD. In this study the rheological profiles of blood from 41 NIDD subjects with treated hypertension (HT), 31 normotensive NIDD subjects (NHT) and 12 non-diabetic controls (C) were studied. Differences in haematocrit failed to reach statistical significance. However, the plasma fibrinogen concentrations (mean ± SD) were significantly different between the groups (HT: 4.7 ± 1.0, NHT: 4.0 ± 0.7, C: 3.5 ± 0.6 g/l) and were reflected in the plasma viscosity (1.52 ± .15, 1.46 ± .06, 1.41 ± 0.6 mPas) and relative blood viscosity at low shear rate, 0.277 s⁻¹, (38.1 ± 3.8, 35.9 ± 3.9, 32.9 ± 3.6). The rheological differences between the groups can be explained mainly in terms of the effects of altered fibrinogen concentration.