title: How reliable is nighttime blood pressure dipping?
abstract: This report examines the reliability of nighttime blood pressure dipping. Twenty-one individuals were studied twice with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. On one occasion they were studied as outpatients, and on the other as inpatients on a clinical research ward. Blood pressure monitoring revealed the expected dip in blood pressure at nighttime. However, there was little test-retest reliability across the two settings. The test-retest correlations for the dip in blood pressure across the two settings were nonsignificant for systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial blood pressure. Caution is advised before diagnosing dipping or nondipping on the basis of one 24-h ambulatory blood pressure recording.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0804, USA.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Dimsdale
authors.forename: M M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Heeren
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D002909:Chronobiology Phenomena / Q000502:physiology; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology*; D003971:Diastole; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D008297:Male; D010045:Outpatients; D013599:Systole