Is exercise-induced blood pressure rise predictive of nephropathy in insulin-dependent diabetes?

A follow-up study was performed in 48 male diabetics and 17 age-matched male controls, who in 1963 and 1971 participated in an exercise study to evaluate if the results could predict later development of diabetic nephropathy. The inclusion criteria were: Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes with age below 40, onset of diabetes before age of 30, duration of diabetes more than 7 years and no proteinuria at the time for the first study. The diabetics demonstrated higher systolic blood pressure (BP) at work but as good physical condition as the controls. Thirteen developed nephropathy after 23 years (range 15–36) of diabetes duration. It was found that exercise-induced, abnormally raised systolic BP was not associated with later development of diabetic nephropathy.