Clinical use of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. A review of value in patient care.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the value of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in routine clinical use.


METHODS
We retrospectively reviewed 350 determinations made over a 4-year period.


METHODS
A practice-based sample of patients attending the Hypertension Outpatient Clinic.


RESULTS
Successful records were obtained in 346 of these procedures and night/sleep recordings were accomplished in 320. Monitor readings compared satisfactorily with auscultatory determinations. Declines in systolic and diastolic blood pressure during night/sleep of 8.2% and 13.2%, respectively, and a fall in the heart rate of 12.0% were noted; these declines were significantly lesser in patients with diabetes. Age, gender, therapy, and 24-hour average blood pressures, however, had minimal relationship to the night/sleep declines in blood pressure and heart rate.


CONCLUSIONS
Twenty-four-hour blood pressure monitoring is acceptable to patients. Night/sleep declines in blood pressure are blunted in diabetics.
Shapiro
A P
AP
Department of Medicine, Shadyside Hospital, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Karschner
J K
JK
Glunk
D J
DJ
Barnhill
B M
BM
D000554:Ambulatory Care Facilities; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D010414:Pennsylvania / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies