Diabetes Care, Vol 18, Issue 4 529-535, Copyright © 1995 by American Diabetes Association
Determinants of 24-h blood pressure in IDDM patients
KW Hansen, PL Poulsen, JS Christiansen and CE Mogensen
Medical Department M (Diabetes and Endocrinology), Aarhus Kommunehospital, Denmark.
OBJECTIVE--To assess the influence of basic clinical data on ambulatory
blood pressure (AMBP) in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM)
patients and to evaluate the reproducibility of the method. RESEARCH DESIGN
AND METHODS--AMBP was measured in 66 IDDM patients with urinary albumin
excretion (UAE) < 20 micrograms/min and in 53 healthy subjects.
Determinants of AMBP were identified in a stepwise multiple regression
model. In addition, 14 diabetic patients were monitored on two days of the
same type, and 14 patients were monitored on one work day and one day off.
RESULTS--In healthy subjects, sex was the most important determinant of
24-h blood pressure (BP), whereas UAE and age were the main covariates in
diabetes patients. The male-female difference in 24-h diastolic BP (dBP)
was 5.6 mmHg lower in diabetic patients than in healthy control subjects (P
< 0.05). In patients with long diabetes duration, nighttime dBP (69 +/-
7 mmHg) was higher than in patients with medium diabetes duration (63 +/- 8
mmHg, P < 0.05; after matching for age and sex). Daytime dBP was 5 mmHg
higher on a work day than on a day off (P < 0.02). Standard deviation of
the difference for repeated measurement of 24-h systolic/diastolic BP in
the same subject was 5.7/2.5 mmHg. CONCLUSIONS--The male-female difference
in 24-h dBP was attenuated in diabetes. The influence of UAE on AMBP was
noticed even in normoalbuminuric diabetic patients. Standardized AMBP was
highly reproducible.