Insulin resistance, hypertension, and coronary heart disease.

The goals of this review are two-fold: to examine the evidence in support of a role for insulin resistance and compensatory hyperinsulinemia in the pathogenesis of essential hypertension, and to evaluate the hypothesis that insulin resistance and its manifestations play major roles in the development of coronary heart disease in patients with essential hypertension. In both instances, only experimental results in human beings will be considered. Although it remains a scientific issue of great importance, the scope of this review precludes a discussion of the mechanistic link between insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia and essential hypertension.