Visceral Fat Accumulation Is Associated With Circadian Blood Pressure in Japanese Patients With Impaired Glucose Tolerance

A central pattern of body fat distribution is generally considered to play an important role in the metabolic syndrome, which involves insulin resistance and hypertension (1). The patients of hypertension, especially nondippers, are at increased risk of hypertension associated with cardiovascular events compared with dippers patients whose nocturnal blood pressure is reduced (2). An increased visceral fat accumulation (VFA) is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, however, no studies have examined a relationship between VFA and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure (ABP). In the current study, therefore, we analyzed the VFA and 24-h ABP in patients with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT).The blood pressure monitoring program recruited 255 consecutive subjects (139 men and 116 women, aged between 48 and 66 years). …