Hypertension and metabolic disorders, a glance from different phenotypes

Abstract

The extraordinary expansion of cardiometabolic risk factors, the impact they generate in the development of hypertension and its specific phenotypes, and its implications in cardiovascular risk and therapeutic decision-making deserve an extensive and careful reflection. The aim of this review is to analyze the available evidence and gaps in the relationship between cardiometabolic risk factors and hypertension phenotypes. Overweight or obese patients, dyslipidemic, carbohydrate intolerant and type 2 diabetic patients have a significantly higher probability of suffering from high blood pressure than subjects without metabolic disorders. Masked hypertension should be systematically suspected in subjects with type 2 diabetes or metabolic disorders and borderline hypertension independently of the debate on the reproducibility of blood pressure phenotypes diagnosis. Some minor difficulties emerge to understand the phenotypes of hypertension in diabetic individuals, since clinical practice guidelines are not homogeneous in their postulates regarding the blood pressure targets at office and ambulatory and home blood pressure monitoring. The small number of diabetic hypertensive patients included in epidemiological studies, and the presence of confounding factors, such as the duration of diabetes, the quantity and type of drugs indicated for the treatment of both hypertension and diabetes, or the level of diabetes control, undermine the possibilities to draw conclusions of value for the clinical practice.

Keywords

• Hypertension phenotypes
• Metabolic disorders
• Target organ damage
• Cardiovascular prognosis