Blood pressure control in Japanese hypertensives with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus

Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension are thought to be at high risk for cardiovascular diseases. Recent guidelines for treatment of hypertension such as the JNC VI and WHO/ISH guidelines, recommend that antihypertensive agents be strated at as low as at 130/85 mmHg and that blood pressure be lowered to less than 130/85 mmHg. Our study was designed to clarify how well and to what extent blood pressure (BP) was controlled in Japanese hypertensive patients with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus. We interviewed two hundred physicians, randomly sellected from among the members of the Japanese Society of Hypertension (JSH) (n=98) and the Japanese Diabetes Society (JDS) (n=102) and obtained information regarding five most recent cases of hypertension with (n=954 in total) and their 2 most recent cases of hypertension without diabetes(n=371 in total). The achieved BP was below 140/90 mmHg in 40.5% of non diabetic and 38.3% of diabetic hypertensives. The percentage of patients whose BP was less than 130/85 mmHg was 10.8% in nondiabetics and 11.4% in diabetics. The average number of hypotensive agents used was 1.46 in nondiabetics and 1.52 in diabetics. Physicians prescribed more ACE inhibitors and alpha -blockers in diabetics than in nondiabetics, although Ca-antagonists were administered in more than 70% of patients irrespective of whether or not they had diabetes. In contrast, fewer beta -blockers and diuretics were administered to diabetics. These results suggest that although Japanese physicians are considering the effects of hypotensive agents on metabolism and renal function when they treat diabetic hypertensives, the achieved brood pressure in both hypertensives with and those without diabetes is insufficient, with only one of ten patients having a blood pressure less than 130/85 mmHg even among diabetics. Improved blood pressure control will therefore be needed to treat high risk groups such as patients with diabetes mellitus.