INS and carotid atherosclerosis: Notably, by performing logistic regression analyses we found that increased levels of proNT were associated with elevated arterial stiffness, defined as pulse pressure ≥ 60 mmHg, and early carotid atherosclerosis, defined as carotid IMT > 0.9 mm, independently of the traditional and risk-enhancers cardiovascular risk factors including age, sex, BMI, lipid profile, blood pressure (only for carotid IMT), hsCRP and insulin sensitivity.