Vascular function measured by fingertip thermal reactivity is impaired in patients with metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus

Digital thermal monitoring (DTM) of vascular function has already been shown to correlate well with coronary artery calcium (CAC) score and coronary artery disease. To determine its utility in the metabolic syndrome (MS) and diabetes mellitus (DM), 233 asymptomatic patients with DM/MS but without coronary artery disease underwent DTM during and after 5 minutes of supra-systolic arm cuff inflation, as well as CAC. Post-cuff deflation adjusted temperature rebound (aTR) was lower in MS and DM compared with the normal group. The odds ratio of lowest vs upper 2 tertiles of aTR was 2.3 for MS and 3.5 for DM compared with the normal group, independent of age, sex, and risk factors. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve to predict CAC ≥100 was 0.69 for metabolic status (DM/MS), 0.79 for aTR, and 0.87 for both. This study demonstrates that vascular dysfunction measured by DTM is associated with DM/MS and could potentially be used to detect asymptomatic individuals with increased subclinical atherosclerosis. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2009;11:678-684.