title: Proposals for European Commission guidelines in the use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to evaluate antihypertensive drugs.
abstract: Different national authorities have different requirements before antihypertensive drugs can be approved for clinical use. Traditionally, antihypertensive treatment is evaluated by blood pressure measurements made by standardized casual readings. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring provides additional information on the antihypertensive profile of a drug. In antihypertensive drug studies, this technique reduces the sample size required, has no placebo effect and provides more detailed information on first-dose effects, the duration of action and dose-response relationships. Accordingly, proposals are being made that might form the basis of European Commission (EC) guidelines for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, thus standardizing the present different national requirements.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Boehringer Mannheim GmbH, Germany.
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Meyer-Sabellek
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015924:Blood Pressure Monitors; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D005060:Europe; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy*; D012015:Reference Standards; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents