[Ambulatory blood pressure profiles of patients with permanent or occasional hypertension. Correlation with clinical data].
Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) recording was performed in 57 untreated hypertensive patients by means of the "Spacelabs" non-invasive apparatus. Patients were divided into two groups according to BP measurements previously made during medical consultation. Group I comprised 25 "permanently hypertensive" patients (diastolic BP always above 95 mmHg) and group II, 32 "occasionally hypertensive" patients (diastolic BP sometimes normal, sometimes above 95 mmHg). The same circadian rhythm was observed in both groups. The mean ambulatory BP level was significantly higher (p less than 0.001) in group I patients than in group II patients, either over the whole of the 24-hour period (142.0/88.0 versus 122.7/75.3 mmHg), or in day time (149.0/92.5 versus 128.2/78.9 mmHg) or at night (128.0/80.1 versus 111.5/68.0 mmHg). In contrast, there did not seem to be any significant difference between the two groups in relative long-term variability of BP, expressed as the standard deviation/mean BP values ratio. Comparison with clinical data showed that BP values measured during consultation (160/103 mmHg in group I, 143/94 mmHg in group II) were higher than ambulatory values and, chiefly, that there was very poor correlation between the two measurement methods, precluding any extrapolation. Automatic ambulatory BP recording provides for more accurate evaluation of hypertensive patients, enabling emotional "artefacts" to be excluded and patients "reactivity" to their socio-professional environment to be assessed. However, in the absence of sufficient epidemiological data, doctors should not feel authorized to base their therapeutic decisions on the sole data supplied by ambulatory BP recordings.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic
Profil tensionnel ambulatoire des patients atteints d'une hypertension artérielle permanente ou occasionnelle. Confrontation aux données cliniques.