Sarcopenia is associated with blood pressure variability in older patients with type 2 diabetes: A cross-sectional study of the KAMOGAWA-DM cohort study.

AIM: To investigate the association between sarcopenia and blood pressure parameters in older patients with type 2 diabetes.

METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of 146 older patients with diabetes. Body composition was evaluated by bioimpedance analysis. The skeletal muscle mass index (kg/m2 ) was defined as appendicular muscle mass / the square of the height. Patients with both handgrip strength <26 kg for men and <18 kg for women, and skeletal muscle mass index <7.0 kg/m2 for men and <5.7 kg/m2 for women were diagnosed as sarcopenia. We measured systolic blood pressure (SBP) at every visit for 1 year and calculated the coefficient of variation of SBP.

RESULTS: Among 146 patients (86 men and mean age 72.6 years [SD 5.9 years], 21 patients (14.4%) were sarcopenic. The coefficient of variation of SBP in patients with sarcopenia was higher than that in patients without sarcopenia (9.1 [SD 3.2] vs 7.1 [SD 2.9]%, P = 0.007), although the average SBP of patients with sarcopenia and that of patients without sarcopenia was not different (129.5 [SD 14.0] vs 130.5 [SD 12.9] mmHg, P = 0.558). Multiple regression analysis showed that sarcopenia was associated with the coefficient of variation of SBP (β = 0.20, P = 0.024), even after adjusting for covariates, whereas sarcopenia was not associated with the average SBP (β = 0.05, P = 0.558).

CONCLUSIONS: We showed that sarcopenia was associated with blood pressure variability, whereas not with the average SBP. It is necessary for clinicians to pay careful attention to blood pressure variability when examining patients with sarcopenia. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2018; 18: 1345-1349.