Comparison of the hypotensive and metabolic effects of bendrofluazide therapy and a high fibre, low fat, low sodium diet in diabetic subjects with mild hypertension

Quantifying the effects of diuretics and β-adrenoceptor blockers on glycaemic control in diabetes mellitus - a systematic review and meta-analysis

AIMS

Although there are reports that β-adrenoceptor antagonists (beta-blockers) and diuretics can affect glycaemic control in people with diabetes mellitus, there is no clear information on how blood glucose concentrations may change and by how much. We report results from a systematic review to quantify the effects of these antihypertensive drugs on glycaemic control in adults with established diabetes.

METHODS

We systematically reviewed the literature to identify randomized controlled trials in which glycaemic control was studied in adults with diabetes taking either beta-blockers or diuretics. We combined data on HbA1c and fasting blood glucose using fixed effects meta-analysis.

RESULTS

From 3864 papers retrieved, we found 10 studies of beta-blockers and 12 studies of diuretics to include in the meta-analysis. One study included both comparisons, totalling 21 included reports. Beta-blockers increased fasting blood glucose concentrations by 0.64 mmol l(-1) (95% CI 0.24, 1.03) and diuretics by 0.77 mmol l(-1) (95% CI 0.14, 1.39) compared with placebo. Effect sizes were largest in trials of non-selective beta-blockers (1.33, 95% CI 0.72, 1.95) and thiazide diuretics (1.69, 95% CI 0.60, 2.69). Beta-blockers increased HbA1c concentrations by 0.75% (95% CI 0.30, 1.20) and diuretics by 0.24% (95% CI -0.17, 0.65) compared with placebo. There was no significant difference in the number of hypoglycaemic events between beta-blockers and placebo in three trials.

CONCLUSIONS

Randomized trials suggest that thiazide diuretics and non-selective beta-blockers increase fasting blood glucose and HbA1c concentrations in patients with diabetes by moderate amounts. These data will inform prescribing and monitoring of beta-blockers and diuretics in patients with diabetes.

Carbohydrate and Fiber Recommendations for Individuals with Diabetes: A Quantitative Assessment and Meta-Analysis of the Evidence

To review international nutrition recommendations with a special emphasis on carbohydrate and fiber, analyze clinical trial information, and provide an evidence-based recommendation for medical nutrition therapy for individuals with diabetes. Relevant articles were identified by a thorough review of the literature and the data tabulated. Fixed-effects meta-analyses techniques were used to obtain mean estimates of changes in outcome measures in response to diet interventions. Most international organizations recommend that diabetic individuals achieve and maintain a desirable body weight with a body mass index of </=25 kg/m(2). For diabetic subjects moderate carbohydrate, high fiber diets compared to moderate carbohydrate, low fiber diets are associated with significantly lower values for: postprandial plasma glucose, total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and triglycerides. High carbohydrate, high fiber diets compared to moderate carbohydrate, low fiber diets are associated with lower values for: fasting, postprandial and average plasma glucose; hemoglobin A(1c); total, LDL-cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and triglycerides. Low glycemic index diets compared to high glycemic index diets are associated with lower fasting plasma glucose values and lower glycated protein values. Based on these analyses we recommend that the diabetic individual should be encouraged to achieve and maintain a desirable body weight and that the diet should provide these percentages of nutrients: carbohydrate, >/=55%; protein, 12-16%; fat, <30%; and monounsaturated fat, 12-15%. The diet should provide 25-50 g/day of dietary fiber (15-25 g/1000 kcal). Glycemic index information should be incorporated into exchanges and teaching material.

Pathogenesis and treatment of hypertension associated with diabetes mellitus

The pathogenesis of hypertension associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) involves an interplay of hereditary and acquired mechanisms. A familial trait for essential hypertension appears to be a risk factor for the development of both hypertension and nephropathy in type I DM and coexists commonly with impaired insulin sensitivity, relative hyperinsulinemia, and dyslipidemia, which can already be detected before the appearance of hypertension, obesity, or upper abdominal redistribution of body fat. The latter finding helps explain the frequent development of hypertension as well as dyslipidemia and/or type II DM in given individuals. Obesity is an important factor promoting these complications. Type I or II DM but not uncomplicated essential hypertension is characteristically accompanied by excess body Na+. This abnormality complements a tendency toward vascular hyperreactivity and a presumably morphologic and functional vasculopathy, thereby promoting the pathogenesis of hypertension in diabetic patients. For the treatment of hypertension in diabetic patients, nonpharmacologic measures are indispensable. If drugs are needed, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and some but not all calcium antagonists are the preferred agents. Monotherapy or a combination of these drug types allows effective blood pressure control in most diabetic patients without further metabolic impairment; ACE inhibitors even tend to improve glucose control. Ketanserin may be a potential alternative, and if a diuretic is also needed, the metabolically neutral indapamide is a reasonable choice. If these agents do not allow satisfactory blood pressure highly selective beta 1-blockers or alpha 1-blockers may be introduced as a second choice. In diabetic patients with nephropathy, effective antihypertensive therapy can reduce proteinuria and slow the progression of the nephropathy; ACE inhibitors may improve diabetic proteinuria even at unchanged systemic blood pressure levels. Unless diuretics are needed for reasons other than hypertension, the treatment of diabetic patients with thiazides or loop diuretics in conventional dosage should probably be avoided until clarification of their influence on prognosis. Nevertheless, whether and to what extent other agents and nonpharmacologic measures can modify the prognosis in diabetic patients is also unclear, and the approach to antihypertensive therapy is therefore still largely empiric.

Long-term follow-up of and underlying medical conditions in patients with diabetic exudative maculopathy

Recent reports of risk factors for and survival of patients with diabetic retinopathy do not include exudative maculopathy as a separate entity. We therefore studied a group of hypertensive Type II diabetic subjects with exudative maculopathy (n = 26) compared to a carefully matched hypertensive diabetic comparison group without retinopathy (n = 26) over seven years. Diabetic maculopathy patients had higher mean diastolic blood pressure (101.6 +/- 14 versus 94.8 +/- 10 mmHg, p less than 0.05), serum cholesterol (6.65 +/- 2.2 versus 5.9 +/- 1.31 mmol/l), HDL2 subfraction levels (0.46 +/- 0.23 versus 0.32 +/- 0.18 mmol/l) and a higher prevalence of hyperlipidaemia (54% versus 35%) compared to the comparison group. After seven years, the maculopathy group showed a strikingly higher prevalence of renal failure and nephrotic syndrome (42% versus 8%, p less than 0.05) and of macroproteinuria (58% versus 15%, p less than 0.01) compared to the comparison group. Mortality and cardiovascular disease event rate was 12% and 38% in the maculopathy and 15% and 31% respectively in the comparison group. We conclude that although mortality is not significantly higher in diabetics with exudative maculopathy, proteinuria, renal failure and nephrotic syndrome may be associated features on long term follow-up. Hypertension and hypercholesterolaemia may also be risk factors in the development of diabetic maculopathy.

Hypertension

The awareness of hypertension as one of the major risk factors for mortality and morbidity in NIDDM has increased greatly in the past few years. It is now accepted practice to measure BP at least yearly in all such patients. Unfortunately, one cannot yet be sure to what extent diabetics benefit from anti-hypertensive therapy, and the simple assumption that treatment of the increased risk reduces that risk must be constantly questioned. No specific data are yet available for NIDDM, though it would be remarkable if the benefits of decreased cerebrovascular mortality and probable reduced total mortality (Sleight, 1987) did not apply to the higher-risk diabetic subject, at least at the higher levels of diastolic pressure (greater than 105 mm Hg). There is, though, no evidence that mortality or morbidity of coronary artery disease, the major killer in NIDDM, is reduced even in non-diabetics and the present author does not consider there to be any evidence suggesting that thresholds for treatment of hypertension in uncomplicated patients with NIDDM should be lower than those for non-diabetics, unless progressive nephropathy is present. Current advice in the non-diabetic is that levels of blood pressure in adults consistently above 95 mm Hg warrant therapy, aiming to reduce it below 90 mm Hg (World Health Organization, 1986). While the importance of hypertension should not be underestimated, it should not deflect attention from the other risk factors. Cessation of smoking, and by implication its reduction, will, for all smoking patients but the most hypertensive, produce a greater reduction in cardiovascular and total mortality risk than will anti-hypertensive therapy. There are also early signs that effective dietary and/or drug treatment of significant hyperlipidaemia lowers cardiovascular mortality. Choice of anti-hypertensive therapy is especially important, not only for efficacy but also for quality of life, in patients who already suffer major restrictions on diet, freedom and life expectancy. While controlled trials in the subject are of immense importance in determining optimum therapy, there is currently no evidence to favour any particular group of drugs, and an individual patient's therapy should be decided on the basis of their own circumstances.

The treatment of poorly controlled non-insulin-dependent diabetic subjects with granulated guar gum

The treatment of poorly controlled, non-compliant non-insulin-dependent diabetic subjects for one month with guar granules (Guarem) was associated with significant improvements in fasting serum glucose and insulin and urinary glucose excretion. No significant change was observed in either oral glucose tolerance, erythrocyte insulin receptor binding, serum calcium, cholesterol, triglyceride or HbA1. Subjects reported significant side effects including excessive flatus, increased bowel frequency and fullness. The limited advantages of Guarem treatment must be measured against the possibility of these side effects which to a large extent may be avoided by special attention to the means of administration. Prudent supplementation of the diet with Guarem has undoubted potential for diabetic control.

Antihypertensive therapy in diabetic patients

Hypertension in diabetic patients is more common than in controls, contributes substantially to their increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and should be treated as accurately as diabetes mellitus itself. After appropriate exclusion of secondary forms, the first therapeutic step consists of reduction of overweight, salt intake, and smoking; the omission of interfering drugs; and adequate instruction. Step 2 has usually been the prescription of a diuretic drug, in spite of its known side effects on carbohydrate and lipid metabolism. A new possible alternative may be a calcium antagonist. Results in 10 hypertensive diabetic persons suggest that at a dose that normalizes blood pressure, neither carbohydrate nor lipid metabolism is altered, uric acid decreases, the exaggerated cardiovascular reactivity toward norepinephrine becomes normal, and the pressor dose for angiotensin II tends to rise. Body weight, blood volume, exchangeable sodium, as well as plasma and urinary sodium, potassium, and creatinine levels were unchanged. The third therapeutic step is the addition of a cardioselective beta blocker in a moderate dose. This avoids the disadvantages of beta 2-adrenergic blockade such as decreased insulin output, prolonged hypoglycemia, diminished glucagon secretion, and increased vasospasticity during hypoglycemic states, as well as aggravation of peripheral vascular disease. Alternatives are other sympatholytics with their known tendency to cause or increase orthostatic and sexual problems or, again, a calcium antagonist. In step 4, a hydralazine-type drug or prazosine is added. The fifth step, which adds minoxidil or captopril to the previous drugs, should only be taken after a specialist reevaluates the overall situation.

Pressor factors and responsiveness in hypertension accompanying diabetes mellitus

Hypertension accompanying diabetes mellitus may involve abnormalities in at least two major blood pressure-regulating systems: the body sodium-fluid volume state and cardiovascular reactivity. In metabolically stable nonazotemic diabetes, exchangeable sodium is increased by 10% on average, regardless of age, insulin dependence or nondependence, or the presence or absence of diabetic retinopathy or clinical nephropathy (proteinuria greater than or equal to 0.3 g/24 hr). Possible contributing mechanisms include renal sodium retention and an extravascular shift of fluid and sodium; intracellular accumulation is not excluded. Circulatory volume is normal or low and the total exchangeable sodium/blood volume ratio increased. In hypertensive diabetes, the latter abnormality is particularly pronounced; systolic pressure tended to correlate with exchangeable sodium (r = 0.47, p less than 0.001) and diastolic pressure with the plasma sodium/potassium ratio (r = 0.25, p less than 0.05). Plasma aldosterone, renin, epinephrine, and norepinephrine levels are generally normal or sometimes low in metabolically stable nonazotemic diabetic patients with normal or high blood pressure; the plasma clearance of norepinephrine also appears to be unaltered. The cardiovascular pressor responsiveness to norepinephrine is often exaggerated relative to concomitant plasma concentrations, regardless of age, type of antidiabetic treatment, or presence or absence of diabetic retinopathy, peripheral neuropathy, or high blood pressure. Pressor responsiveness to angiotensin II also may sometimes be increased relative to plasma renin levels. Sodium retention and diabetic vasculopathy of resistance vessels could be important complementary mechanisms of hyperreactivity. In diabetes with mild hypertension, diuretic treatment restored exchangeable sodium, norepinephrine pressor responsiveness, and blood pressure toward normal. Thus sodium retention and cardiovascular hyperreactivity tend to occur even at the normotensive, nonazotemic stage of diabetes and may concomitantly predispose for the frequent development of hypertension in the diabetic population.