BACKGROUND: The stroke volume to pulse pressure ratio (SV/PP), a measure of total arterial compliance, predicts adverse cardiovascular events in hypertensive subjects. The relations to cardiovascular risk factors and its predictive capacity in the general population are not known. METHOD AND RESULTS: In 1970-73, all 50-year-old men living in Uppsala County, Sweden, were invited to a health survey assessing cardiovascular risk factors. At a reinvestigation 20 years later, 470 subjects underwent an echocardiographic examination, hyperinsulinaemic euglycaemic clamp, oral glucose tolerance test and measurements of blood pressure and lipids. They were thereafter followed for a median of 7.2 years. Serum triglycerides and post-load glucose and insulin levels at age 50 were predictors of SV/PP ratio measured 20 years later (P