Objective: To investigate the characteristics of glucose metabolism in elderly patients with essential hypertension and its association with cardiovascular diseases.
Methods: One hundred and nineteen elderly patients with essential hypertension and no diagnosed diabetes mellitus were recruited. Thirty-one elderly patients with neither diagnosed diabetes mellitus nor essential hypertension served as controls. Data about the history of smoking, BMI, IRI and ISI were collected from the participants. According to oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT), the patients with essential hypertension were divided into normal glucose tolerance group (NGT), impaired glucose regulation group (IGR) and diabetes mellitus group (DM). The BMI, FPG, PPG, TG, TC, LDL, HDL, SBP, DBP, IMT, LVMI and LVEF were compared between the groups.
Results: The patients with essential hypertension had significantly higher smoking rate and higher BMI, IRI, ISI, PPG, FIN, PIN, Cr, UA, TG and HDL than the controls (P < 0.05). IRI was correlated with BMI, SBP, DBP, TG and HDL. DM, IGR and abnormal glucose metabolism were identified in 24.4%, 38.6%, and 63% of the elderly patients with essential hypertension patients, respectively. The patients in the IGR group and DM group had significantly higher FPG, PPG, PIN, IRI, ISI, BMI, Cr, TG, HDL, LDL and SBP than those in the NGT group (P < 0.05). The incidence of plaque and LVEF in the patients with IGR and DM were higher than in the patients with normal glucose tolerance (P < 0.05).
Conclusion: Elderly patients with essential hypertension have abnormalities in glucose metabolism. OGTT should be offered to the elderly patients with essential hypertension as a measure to detect DM and prevent cardiovascular diseases.