Blood pressure variability and its association with echocardiographic parameters in hypertensive diabetic patients.

Background: Blood pressure (BP) variability is associated with target organ damage in hypertension and diabetes. The 24 h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (24 h-ABPM) has been proposed as an evaluation for BP variability using several indexes [standard deviation (SD) of mean BP, coefficient of variation (CV), BP variation over time (time-rate index)].

Methods: We evaluated the association between BP variability measured by 24 h-ABPM indexes and echocardiographic variables in a cross-sectional study in 305 diabetic-hypertensive patients.