Conversion of IGT to type 2 diabetes mellitus is associated with incident cases of hypertension: a post-hoc analysis of the STOP-NIDDM trial

BACKGROUND:Type 2 diabetes mellitus and hypertension are closely associated and contribute together to microvascular and macrovascular end-organ damage. Prevalence of hypertension is increased even in the prediabetic state. However, there is little information available about the relationship between incidence of hypertension and a deterioration of glucose tolerance from impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) to diabetes. METHODS:To clarify these issues we analysed data from the Stop non insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (STOP-NIDDM) trial – a prospective interventional study for the prevention of type 2 diabetes in people with prediabetes using the alpha-glucosidase inhibitor acarbose. Hypertension was already present at study entry in 702 (51.3%) of 1368 patients who were eligible for intention-to-treat analysis. RESULTS:A total of 96 out of the 666 normotensive individuals at baseline developed hypertension during the 3.3-year follow-up. The strongest risk factors for time to development of hypertension were abdominal obesity at baseline [hazard ratio 1.91, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.19–3.05, P