Relationship of plasma insulin levels to the incidence of myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease mortality in a middle-aged population.

The possible role of plasma insulin levels as a risk factor of coronary heart disease has been studied in a population of 7246 non diabetic, working men, aged 43-54 years, initially free from heart disease, and followed for 63 months on average. 128 new coronary heart disease events (non fatal myocardial infarction and coronary related deaths) were detected during this period. The annual risk is analysed by a multivariate model including age, serum cholesterol and triglycerides, blood pressure, smoking, obesity, plasma glucose and insulin fasting and 2 hours after a 75 g oral glucose load. It is shown that the fasting plasma insulin level and the fasting insulin-glucose ratio are positively associated with risk independent of the other factors. The same variables, 2 hours after the glucose load are also positively associated with risk but their contributions are not significant in the multivariate analysis. It is concluded that high insulin levels may constitute an independet risk factor for coronary heart disease complications in middle aged non diabetic men.