Prevalence of white-coat and masked hypertension in patients type 2 diabetes

Abstract

Concurrent measurement of office blood pressure (BP) and 24-hour monitoring of BP is an effective method for diagnosing white and masked hypertension, two pathological conditions associated with increased cardiovascular risk. We aimed to investigate the prevalence of white-coat and masked hypertension in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes. We randomly recruited 260 patients with type 2 diabetes and hypertension in our cross-sectional study. Anthropometric, clinical, and laboratory data were collected and all patients were submitted to 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. Participants were 61.1±7.9 years old, 102 (39.2%) men, and had a median duration of diabetes of 10.0 (5.0; 15.0) years. We found that the prevalence of white-coat hypertension and masked hypertension was present in 13% and 43.5%, respectively. In our patients with type 2 diabetes, we observed a lower prevalence of white-coat hypertension and a higher prevalence of masked hypertension compared to previous data reported in the general population. Our observation draws attention to the importance of office BP and 24-hour ambulatory BP measurements in patients with type 2 diabetes.