Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring in Normotensive Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: An Observational Study

Introduction: Hypertension (HTN) is a major cause of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, particularly in diabetic people. Because HTN and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) frequently co-exist, HTN is a significant risk factor for chronic problems masked HTN affects around a one third of T2DM patients who have normal Blood Pressure (BP) readings in the clinic. T2DM patients frequently have normal office BP (BP) and no nocturnal BP falling. The non dipping BP pattern raises the risk of cardiovascular events and damage to target organs. Multiple BP recordings can be obtained with Ambulatory BP Monitoring (ABPM). By providing variability of BP, and diurnal variation in BP, it assists the treating physician in the diagnosis and management of HTN.Aim: To elucidate the prevalence of non dipping pattern in T2DM and the characteristics of diabetics who have non dipping pattern using ambulatory monitoring.Materials and Methods: This was an observational study carried out in the Department of Medicine at JIPMER, Pondicherry, India. Between January 2016 and December 2017, 110 patients with T2DM were visited to Medicine Outpatient Department and the Diabetic Clinic. Out of 110, a total of 62 patients, with an average age of 46.67 years, were included in the study. Sun Tech Oscar 2' 24 hourR ABPM system was used for the study of ambulatory BP of patients, at specified times.Results: Sixty-two normotensive T2DM patients, mean age of 46.67 years were analysed in the 24 months. A total of 62 patients, the non dipping pattern was seen in 47 (76%) of the 62 individuals evaluated for ABPM, while the dipping pattern was seen in 15 (24%) of the normotensive T2DM patients. A non dipping pattern was associated with a higher Body Mass Index (BMI) (p-value=0.03). A non dipping habit was also substantially associated with high PPBS values (p-value=0.02).Conclusion: Patients with a history of HTN and smoking had a higher chance of non dipping patterns, which may lead to end -organ damage and future cardiovascular events. ABPM can be used as a screening tool to predict cardiovascular events in T2DM.