Endocrine Abstracts

High blood pressure is a condition that is frequently associated with diabetes. It aggravates the prognosis of the diabetic by increasing the cardiovascular risk and accelerating the occurrence of degenerative complications. The aim of our work was to study the effect of the association of high blood pressure and diabetes on the degenerative complications of diabetes. This is a descriptive retrospective study conducted at the C department of the National Institute of Nutrition in Tunis about 156 type 2 diabetics hospitalized between January and March 2018. The average age was 54.57±11.17 years old. The sex ratio was 1.02. The prevalence of high blood pressure was 58.3%. Retinopathy was present in 41.02% and was proliferative in 13.5% of cases. Nephropathy and neuropathy were present in 17.3% and 35.9% of cases, respectively. 20.5% of patients had coronary disease. A history of stroke was found in 5.8% of cases. Obliterative arteriopathy of the lower extremities was found in 8.3% of patients. We found a strong correlation between the degenerative complications of diabetes and the presence of hypertension: retinopathy (P=0.048), neuropathy (P=0.012), nephropathy (P=0.002), coronary artery disease (P=0.001), stroke (P=0.011) and peripheral arterial occlusive disease (P=0.008). Our study highlights the negative effect of high blood pressure on degenerative complications of diabetes. Optimal control of blood pressure is essential to limit the progression of these complications.