title: Attenuation of the "white-coat effect" by antihypertensive treatment and regression of target organ damage.
abstract: This study assessed whether 2 common surrogate measures of the "white-coat effect," namely the clinic-daytime and the clinic-home differences in blood pressure (BP), were attenuated by long-term antihypertensive treatment and whether this attenuation is relevant to the treatment-induced regression of left ventricular hypertrophy, thus having clinical significance. We considered data from 206 patients with essential hypertension (aged 20 to 65 years) who had a diastolic BP between 95 and 115 mm Hg and echocardiographic evidence of left ventricular hypertrophy. In each patient, clinic BP, 24-hour ambulatory BP, and left ventricular mass index were assessed at baseline, after 3 and 12 months of treatment with an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor, and after a final 4-week placebo run-off period. At baseline, the clinic-daytime differences in systolic and diastolic BP were 12.1+/-15.4 and 6.8+/-10.1 mm Hg, respectively; the corresponding values for the clinic-home differences were 5.7+/-10.6 and 2.9+/-6.1 mm Hg, respectively. These differences were reduced by 57.6% and 77.1% (P<0.01) and by 65.7% and 64.3% (P<0.01), respectively, after 12 months of treatment, with a partial return toward the pretreatment differences after the final placebo period. The observed treatment-induced reductions in left ventricular mass index and those in the clinic-daytime or clinic-home differences for systolic and diastolic BP showed no significant relationship when tested by multiple regression analysis. This provides the first longitudinal evidence that clinic-daytime and clinic-home differences in BP have no substantial value in predicting the regression of target organ damage, such as left ventricular hypertrophy, that has prognostic relevance.
authors.affiliation: Clinica Medica, University of Milano-Bicocca and Ospedale S. Gerardo, Monza, Italy. gparati@mailserver.unimi.it
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Parati
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ulian
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sampieri
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Palatini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Villani
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vanasia
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mancia
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D003971:Diastole; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009819:Office Visits; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016037:Single-Blind Method; D013599:Systole; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents