So where does diabetes fit in? Many of the high-risk phenotypes are pathognomonic of diabetes, including insulin resistance, sodium sensitivity, left ventricular hypertrophy and microalbuminuria. Moreover, diabetic subjects have evidence of loss of elasticity in their large vessels as shown by the study of Toutouzas et al, using isolated aortas from diabetic animals. Thus for any increase in volume within the vessels, diabetic vessels showed a substantially greater rise of pressure than did those of non-diabetic specimens.