24-hour ambulatory blood pressure and renal disease in young subjects with type I diabetes.

Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) was evaluated in 150 teenage and young adults with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) to define high-risk subjects who are likely to develop early diabetic nephropathy. Their age range was 16-28 years with diabetes of 3.5-25.8 years duration. All subjects had office blood pressure (BP) measured, wore an ABP monitor for 24 h, and collected two or more timed urine samples for albumin excretion rates (AERs). Eighty-six subjects had no elevation of AER (< 7.6 micrograms/min), 29 subjects had borderline elevations (7.6-20 micrograms/min), 24 subjects had microalbuminuria (20.1-200 micrograms/min), and 11 had macroalbuminuria (> 200 micrograms/min). Age, gender, duration of diabetes, and single office BP readings were similar in the four groups (p > 0.05, logistic regression). All 24-h ABP parameters were significantly higher in subjects with diabetes having AER values greater than 7.6 micrograms/min when compared with healthy age- and gender-matched nondiabetic controls (p < 0.05, Dunnett's t test). The percent of nighttime systolic and diastolic ABP readings above the 90th percentile of normal for age, gender, and race and the percent of readings in the hypertensive range (> 140/90) were significantly related with AERs (p < 0.01; logistic regression). A higher percentage of ABP values above the 90th percentile for age, gender, and ethnic group or of ABP readings above hypertensive levels (> or = 140/90) are associated with diabetic renal disease.