Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in children and adolescents with type-1 diabetes mellitus and its relation to diabetic control and microalbuminuria

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is now considered as the major cause of end-stage kidney failure, and hypertension (HTN) is one of the main determinants of progression of renal disease. The aim of this study was to assess the role of blood pressure (BP) by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in children and adolescents with type-1 DM and its correlation with micro-albuminuria (MA) and diabetic control. Eighty-one patients with type-1 DM (mean age 13 ± 4 years), whose duration of DM was at least two years, were enrolled in this study. The prevalence of HTN based on ABPM was 28.4%, while by casual method it was 32.1%. The pattern of HTN was as follows: mean systolic HTN 27.2%, mean diastolic HTN 11.2%, daytime systolic HTN 17.3%, daytime diastolic HTN 6.2%, night systolic HTN 30.9%, and night diastolic HTN 29.7%. The systolic and diastolic BP loads were 33.4 and 27.2%, respectively. About 70.4% of the patients were non-dippers, 12.4% had masked HTN, and 3.7% had white coat HTN. The pre­valence of MA was 34.6% and that of abnormal HbA 1 c was 82.7%. There was no correlation bet­ween HTN and both MA and HbA 1 c; also, no correlation was found between the duration of dia­betes and HbA 1 c. Moreover, no significant correlation was found between the duration of diabetes and MA ( P = 0.080). Despite the high prevalence of abnormal BP profile among diabetic children, prospective longitudinal studies considering the other major risk factors, particularly genetic factors, which have an impact on the progression to diabetic nephropathy, are recommended.