Microvasculaire disfunctie als verklaring van het metabool syndroom

– The metabolic syndrome is a cluster of mutually related risk factors that confers an increased risk for both type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease.

– Although the metabolic syndrome seems to have multiple aetiological factors, microvascular dysfunction is a potential explanation for the above-mentioned cluster of multiple metabolic risk factors such as hypertension, insulin resistance and glucose intolerance.

– Microvascular dysfunction leads not only to increased peripheral vascular resistance and blood pressure, but may also decrease the insulin-mediated glucose uptake in muscles.

– The different effect on the microcirculation may explain why some antihypertensive drugs (β-blockers) lead to an increased incidence of type 2 diabetes, whereas others (angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors) are associated with a decrease of that risk.

Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd 2005;149:866-70