Association of brachial and central hemodynamic parameters to eGFR and proteinuria in Gujarati diabetics with mild-to-moderate nephropathy

INTRODUCTION: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a significant risk factor for nephropathy and cardiovascular morbidity. Pulse wave analysis (PWA) gives direct inference of brachial hemodynamics (BH) and central hemodynamics (CH). We studied relation of them with diabetic nephropathy (DN) among type-2 diabetics (T2D). METHODS: We studied oscillometric PWA by a cross-sectional study in 160 T2Ds. Using Mobil-o-Graph (IEM, Germany), we derived BH (blood pressure, pulse pressure index, rate pressure product) and CH (aortic pressure, cardiac index, stroke volume index, stroke work). They were further compared and associated with DN in terms of creatinine, proteinuria, and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). RESULTS: There were 89 males, mean age 56 years, mean duration 4.8 years, 80% hypertensive predominantly using ACE inhibitors, poor glycemic blood pressure (BP) control, mainly mild-to-moderate DN, mean eGFR 88.2, 34% prevalence of proteinuria. Arterial stiffness was high with female disadvantage. BH and CH parameters were not different with or without DN using proteinuria or eGFR (60 cutoff) criteria. BH, CH correlated insignificantly with creatinine and eGFR. Female disadvantage, correlation with bSBP and aSBP were only significant results. CONCLUSIONS: BH and CH are not related to eGFR and proteinuria in predominantly hypertensive, Gujarati diabetics with mild-to-moderate nephropathy suggesting need of other cardiovascular parameters.