[Changes in blood pressure and methods of blood pressure monitoring in patients with type-1 diabetes].

Both diabetes mellitus and hypertension are major risk factors for cardiovascular, renal and atherosclerotic vascular disease. Hypertension is known to be more common in patients with diabetes than in the general population. Patients with diabetes mellitus are at high risk for renal injury, which may be exacerbated by abnormalities in circadian blood pressure pattern. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) permits the observation of blood pressure throughout day and night in a non-medical environment, and to quantify the circadian blood pressure variability. Recent studies with the use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring have shown that the physiological nocturnal fall in blood pressure is blunted or absent in some individuals with type 1 diabetes who are completely normotensive by conventional criteria. Patients with type 1 diabetes and microalbuminuria have higher nocturnal blood pressure than either patients with type 1 diabetes and normal albumin excretion or age-matched controls. Moreover, changes in the circadian pattern of blood pressure in patients with type 1 diabetes may predict the development of albuminuria.