Uncontrolled home blood pressure in the morning is associated with nephropathy in Japanese type 2 diabetes.

The purposes of this study were to investigate the state of blood pressure control level and to investigate the relationship between blood pressure control level and nephropathy in Japanese type 2 diabetes. We measured clinic and home blood pressure in 923 type 2 diabetic patients. According to the criteria for hypertension in the Japanese Society of Hypertension Guidelines 2009, patients were classified into four groups by clinic systolic blood pressure (130 mmHg) and morning systolic blood pressure (125 mmHg), as follows: controlled hypertension (CH), white-coat hypertension (WCH), masked hypertension (MH), and sustained hypertension (SH). Of all patients, 13.9, 12.6, 13.3, and 60.2% were identified as having CH, WCH, MH, and SH, respectively. The average number of drugs prescribed was 1.8. We assessed the association between blood pressure control level and nephropathy in diabetic patients. The degree of urinary albumin excretion and the prevalence of nephropathy in diabetic patients were higher in MH and SH groups than those in the CH group. The majority of patients had poor blood pressure control, regardless of ongoing conventional antihypertensive therapy, and diabetic patients with MH and SH were associated with nephropathy. It is suggested that more aggressive antihypertensive treatment is recommended to prevent nephropathy in diabetic patients.

Dipeptidyl-peptidase IV inhibitor is effective in patients with type 2 diabetes with high serum eicosapentaenoic acid concentrations.

UNLABELLED: Aims/Introduction: Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) stimulates glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) secretion in mice. We investigated the relationship between serum EPA concentrations and the efficacy of dipeptidyl-peptidase IV (DPP-4) inhibitor in patients with type 2 diabetes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Serum EPA concentrations were measured in 62 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes who were newly given DPP-4 inhibitor as a monotherapy or as an add-on therapy to oral hypoglycemic agents. The dosage of oral hypoglycemic agents was maintained during the observation period. After 24 weeks of treatment with DPP-4 inhibitor, we evaluated the relationships between a decrease in hemoglobin A1c from baseline and serum EPA concentrations, as well as age, sex, body mass index (BMI), hemoglobin A1c at baseline and usage of antidiabetic concomitant drugs. RESULTS: Hemoglobin A1c was significantly decreased from 8.1 ± 1.1% to 7.2 ± 1.0% by DPP-4 inhibitor. A decrease in hemoglobin A1c correlated with BMI (r = -0.396, P = 0.0013), age (r = 0.275, P = 0.0032), hemoglobin A1c at baseline (r = 0.490, P < 0.0001) and log EPA (r = 0.285, P = 0.0246). Multiple regression analysis showed that BMI (ß = -0.419, P = 0.0002), hemoglobin A1c at baseline (ß = 0.579, P < 0.0001) and log EPA (ß = 0.220, P = 0.0228) were independent determinants of decrease in hemoglobin A1c. CONCLUSIONS: DPP-4 inhibitor is effective in patients with type 2 diabetes with high serum EPA concentrations. (J Diabetes Invest, doi: 10.1111/j.2040-1124.2012.00220.x , 2012).

Visit-to-visit variability in systolic blood pressure is correlated with diabetic nephropathy and atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE: Recent studies make remarks on the effect of variability in systolic blood pressure (SBP) on the development of cardiovascular disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the variability in SBP and the degree of diabetic nephropathy and atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes. METHODS: We measured SBP in 422 consecutive patients with type 2 diabetes at every visit during a year, and we calculated the coefficient of variation (CV) of SBP. Then, we evaluated relationships of variability of SBP to degree of urinary albumin excretion (UAE), which is a useful marker for cardiovascular disease as well as diabetic nephropathy, ankle-brachial index (ABI) and pulse wave velocity (PWV). RESULTS: CV of SBP positively correlated with logUAE (r=0.210, P<0.0001) or PWV (r=0.409, P<0.0001), whereas CV of SBP inversely correlated with ABI (r=-0.098, P=0.0463). Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that CV of SBP independently correlated with logUAE (ß=0.149, P=0.0072), PWV (ß=0.337, P<0.0001) or ABI (ß=-0.162, P=0.0101). CONCLUSIONS: Not only average SBP but also variability in SBP is correlated with diabetic nephropathy and atherosclerosis in patients with type 2 diabetes.