To determine whether insulin resistance played a role in the association between low skeletal muscle mass and arterial wall thickening, we additionally adjusted for the insulin resistance index (data not shown); this caused the effect of low skeletal muscle mass to diminished to borderline in men with lower BMIs, suggesting that insulin resistance may partially but not fully explain the association between low appendicular skeletal muscle mass and arterial wall thickening. The gene discussed is INS; the disease is Insulin resistance.