High blood pressure in a type 2 diabetic population of the city of Sidi Bel Abbes, Algeria

Abstract

The association of type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure (HT) results in increased cardiovascular risk and accelerated degenerative complications of diabetes. We aimed to determine the frequency of HT in type 2 diabetic patients and to evaluate the relationship between this association with the micro-angiopathy complications. A cross sectional study was conducted in 279 type 2diabetic patients (67.7% women, 32.3% men), mean age: 60.16 ± 0.60 years old, diabetes duration: 11 ± 0.47 years, body mass index: 28.70 kg/m 2 ; 47.9% of patients were overweight and 32.3% were obese. HT was found in 58.9% of patients (62.7% women, 50.6% men). This percentage significantly increased with age ( P < 0.001): 20% of patients younger than 40 years old, 40% aged 40–50 years, 47% aged 50–60 years and 74% over 60 years old. HT also significantly increased with duration of diabetes ( P = 0.001): 40% of patients whose duration of diabetes did not exceed 5 years, 55% between 5 and 10 years, 67% between 10 and 20 years, and 74% among those whose duration of diabetes exceeded 20 years. HT occurred in 60% of patients with normal weight, in 55% of overweight patients and in 62% of obese patients without significant difference. HT was found in 59% of patients with normal HDL plasma levels versus 50% of patients with low HDL levels, in 58% with a normal triglyceride vs. 56% in those with high levels of TG. For degenerative complications, retinopathy was found in 34% of patients (36.6% men, 29% women) without significant difference between sexes. Nephropathy was found in 9% of patients, all those were women. Using unvaried analysis, these complications were significantly correlated with HT with P = 0, 013 and 0,011 respectively. Retinopathy was found in 40% of hypertensive diabetics vs. 24% in normotensive diabetics. Nephropathy was found in 13% of hypertensive diabetics vs. 3% in normotensive diabetics. Our study confirms the association between diabetes and HT. We observed a high prevalence of HT in our diabetic population increasing with age and duration of diabetes. High risk of degenerative complications requires intensive management of HT in diabetic patients.