Effects of type 2 diabetes mellitus on ambulatory blood pressure and blood pressure variability in essential hypertensive patients

Objective To explore the effects of type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM) on ambulatory blood pressure(ABP) and blood pressure variability(BPV) in essential hypertensive(EH) patients. Methods Twenty-four-hour recordings of ambulatory blood pressure were performed in 36 EH patients and 33 EH patients with T2DM, and comparative analysis of ABP and BPV was made between the two groups. Results Mean daytime systolic blood pressure(dmSBP)(P0.05), mean daytime pulse pressure(dmPP)(P0.01), daytime SBP standard deviation(dSBPSD)(P0.01) and its coefficient of variance(dSBPCV)(P0.05)of EH patients with T2DM were all significantly higher than those of EH patients without T2DM respectively. Conclusions T2DM could aggravate hypertension-induced abnormality in both structure and function of cardiovascular systems, and then increase ABP and BPV. Therefore, improvement of insulin sensitivity in those EH subjects with impaired glucose metabolism might restore cardiovascular hemodynamics, thus stabilizing the blood pressure fluctuation and reducing the possibility of cardiovascular complications.