United Kingdom Prospective Diabetes Study. III. Prevalence of hypertension and hypotensive therapy in patients with newly diagnosed diabetes. A multicenter study.

We measured the blood pressure of 1226 patients with newly diagnosed maturity-onset diabetes, age 25 to 65 years (mean 52 years), mean fasting plasma glucose 11.4 mmol/L. Forty percent of males and 53% of females had hypertension by the World Health Organization criteria of either having blood pressure more than 160/95 mm Hg or receiving hypotensive therapy. Male patients were less obese than female patients (21% and 40% over ideal weight respectively) and a mean 1.3 years younger. Blood pressure was higher in women than men, but it was not significantly greater if age and obesity were taken into account. Twenty-three percent of men and 42% of women had already been informed they were hypertensive, and 12% of men and 26% of women were already receiving hypotensive therapy. The prevalence of hypertension in diabetic white patients was greater than that reported in a sex- and age-matched healthy population. The blood pressure of those taking diuretics was not significantly greater than that of untreated patients, but the 8% of men and 13% of women receiving other hypotensive drugs still had significantly higher blood pressure than the untreated patients. Both patients treated by diuretics and those treated by other hypotensive agents had significantly higher mean plasma urea and creatinine concentrations than untreated patients. This may have been induced by therapy, but one cannot exclude the possibility that treated patients already had renal impairment from diabetic, hypertensive, or other pathology.