%0 Journal Article
%T Increased plasma soluble endoglin levels as an indicator of cardiovascular alterations in hypertensive and diabetic patients
%A Ana M Bl¨¢zquez-Medela
%A Luis Garc¨ªa-Ortiz
%A Manuel A G¨®mez-Marcos
%A Jos¨¦ I Recio-Rodr¨ªguez
%A Angel S¨¢nchez-Rodr¨ªguez
%A Jos¨¦ M L¨®pez-Novoa
%A Carlos Mart¨ªnez-Salgado
%J BMC Medicine
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1741-7015-8-86
%X We analyzed 288 patients: 64 with type 2 diabetes, 159 with hypertension and 65 healthy patients. We assessed the relationship of soluble endoglin plasma levels measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay with basal glycemia, glycosylated hemoglobin, blood pressure, endothelial dysfunction (assessed by pressure wave velocity), hypertensive retinopathy (by Keith-Wagener classification), left ventricular hypertrophy (by Cornell and Sokolow indexes), cardiovascular risk and target organ (heart, vascular, kidney) damage.There are significant correlations between endoglin and glycemia, systolic blood pressure, pulse pressure, pressure wave velocity and electrocardiographically assessed left ventricular hypertrophy. Endoglin levels were significantly higher in patients with diabetes who had nondipper and extreme dipper circadian blood pressure patterns than in dipper circadian patterns, in patients with hypertension and diabetes who had riser pattern than in the other patients, and in patients with diabetes but not hypertension who had extreme dipper pattern than in dipper, nondipper and riser groups. There was also a significant correlation between plasma-soluble endoglin and lower levels of systolic night-day ratio. Higher endoglin levels were found in patients with diabetes who had retinopathy, in patients with diabetes who had a high probability of 10-year cardiovascular risk, and in patients with diabetes and hypertension who had three or more damaged target organs (heart, vessels, kidney) than in those with no organs affected.This study shows that endoglin is an indicator of hypertension- and diabetes-associated vascular pathologies as endothelial dysfunction and cardiovascular damage.Vascular disease is the main cause for disability and death in patients with diabetes mellitus [1]. In type 2 diabetes, small vessels (microangiopathy) or large vessels (macroangiopathy) are affected. Microvascular disease is characteristic of several pathologies such as retinopathy,
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/8/86