Impaired insulin sensitivity in young, lean normotensive offspring of essential hypertensives: possible role of disturbed calcium metabolism.

Objectives: To determine whether insulin sensitivity is impaired in normotensive offspring of essential hypertensives and to investigate how it relates to disturbed calcium metabolism. Design: In 10 young lean, normotensive subjects with family histories of essential hypertension and in 10 age-matched controls we investigated insulin sensitivity by the euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemic clamp technique, and 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (GTT). We simultaneously measured calcium-related factors, including the intracellular calcium concentration in platelets