During the past decades, several studies in different populations have suggested that nighttime blood pressure (BP) is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular (CV) events than daytime BP. [1][2][3][4][5] Indeed, a recent meta-analysis concluded that nighttime BP is superior to daytime BP in predicting CV events and total mortality in both patients and general populations. 6 Consequently, treatment strategies to target nighttime BP have come into focus.Bedtime administration (BA) of different classes of antihypertensive drugs has been shown to reduce nighttime BP, although results are not unequivocal. 7 Moreover, a recent prospective study concluded that BA of ≥1 antihypertensive drugs resulted in a significantly lower relative risk of total events and major CV events.8 Consequently, the American Diabetes Association now recommends administering ≥1 antihypertensive drugs at bedtime.
9Diabetes mellitus is a condition in which CV risk is markedly increased. 10 The predictive role of nighttime BP has also been established in patients with diabetes mellitus.3 Nocturnal hypertension is more frequent in diabetic compared with that in nondiabetic patients, in part, because of autonomic dysfunction. Only a few studies have investigated the effect of BA of antihypertensive drugs in diabetes mellitus, 11,12 and these studies applied BA irrespective of the level of nighttime BP.Hence, it was our aim to conduct a randomized crossover study on the effect of change of administration time of oncedaily antihypertensive drugs in a population of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and nocturnal hypertension, defined as nighttime systolic BP (SBP) ≥120 mm Hg. Our primary end point was changes in ambulatory BP parameters, with specific focus on nighttime BP.
MethodsThe study was approved by the Central Denmark Region Committees on Health Research Ethics and the Danish Data Protection Agency. All patients provided informed consent. The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov with ID NCT01158625.
Study PopulationInclusion criteria included (1) type 2 diabetes mellitus, (2) antihypertensive treatment including ≥1 once-daily renin-angiotensin system Abstract-Several studies in different populations have suggested that nighttime blood pressure (BP) is a stronger predictor of cardiovascular events than daytime BP. Consequently, treatment strategies to target nighttime BP have come into focus. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of change of administration time of antihypertensive drugs. We included 41 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and nocturnal hypertension (nighttime systolic BP >120 mm Hg) in an open-label, crossover study. Patients were randomized to 8 weeks of either morning or bedtime administration of all of the individual's once-daily antihypertensive drugs, followed by 8 weeks of switched dosing regimen. Bedtime administration of antihypertensive drugs resulted in a significant reduction in nighttime (7.5 mm Hg; P<0.001) and 24-hour (3.1 mm Hg; P=0.014) systolic BP, with a nonsignificant reduct...