Patterns of Ambulatory Blood Pressure in Normotensive Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Attending a Tertiary Care Hospital in South India.

UNLABELLED

Systemic hypertension (HTN) is one of the most common comorbidities in diabetes mellitus (DM). Diabetic patients with HTN have a several-fold increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) as compared to normotensive nondiabetic controls. Routine office blood pressure (BP) measurement does not help diagnose hypertensive phenotypes such as masked hypertension, white coat hypertension, etc. Hence, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a valuable tool for diagnosing these conditions, as it can help identify adverse cardiovascular complications.

AIMS

To study the patterns of ambulatory blood pressure profile in normotensive patients with type 2 DM.

METHODOLOGY

This was a cross-sectional study conducted among all patients aged 18 years and above who attended the endocrinology outpatient department of a tertiary care hospital.

RESULTS

The total number of participants in the study was 57, with a mean age of 55.26 years (SD 13.52) among patients. Males comprised the majority, at 32 (56.1%). Masked hypertension was found in 22 (38.6%) patients who had normal blood pressure on routine office BP measurements. Among the masked hypertensive group, 10 (45.5%) patients were dippers, nine (40.9%) were non-dippers, and the rest were reverse dippers. Of those with masked hypertension, 4.54% (n=1) had isolated daytime hypertension, 31.8% (n=7) had isolated nocturnal hypertension, and 63.63% (n=14) had both. Age was the factor that influenced masked hypertension in the study.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study underscores the need to incorporate routine utilization of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in patients with type 2 DM for early identification of hypertension. Solely depending upon office blood pressure monitoring might not be sufficient to detect the hypertensive phenotypes in patients with type 2 DM.