Hypertensive response to exercise in dipper and non-dipper normotensive diabetics

Non-dipper blood pressure (NDP) as an indicator of autonomic dysfunction could be associated with hypertensive response to exercise (HRE) in diabetic patients. HRE was determined as a predictor of development of unborn hypertension. We aimed to investigate if any correlation among NDP and HRE in normotensive type 2 diabetic patients. A total of 59 consecutive type 2 diabetic patients without history of hypertension and with normal blood pressure (BP) on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) were enrolled to the study. We divided the study population in to two groups depending on their BP on ABPM as dipper (group 1) or non-dipper (group 2). There were 22 patients (mean age 49.5 ± 7 and 10 male) in group 1 and 37 patients (mean age 53.1 ± 10 and 14 male) in group 2. Daytime diastolic and mean BP of dippers and night time systolic and mean BP of non-dippers were significantly higher. HRE was not significantly different between groups (59% vs. 62%, p = 0.820). Hemodynamic parameters during the exercise test were similar. At multivariate linear regression analysis, resting office systolic blood pressure (SBP) (r = 0.611, p < 0.001), male sex (r = 0.266, p = 0.002) and age (r = 0.321, p = 0.010) were independently correlated with peak exercises SBP. Logistic regression analyses identified the resting office SBP (OR 1.191, 95% CI 1.080-1.313; p < 0.001) and age (OR 1.161, 95% CI 1.038-1.298; p = 0.012) were independent predictors of HRE. This study revealed that HRE is not related with non-dipper BP in diabetic patients. This study could inspire to further studies to explore the main reasons of HRE in diabetes mellitus.