title: Long-term reproducibility of ambulatory blood pressure in unselected elderly subjects.
abstract: The aim of this study was to evaluate the long-term reproducibility and validity of 24-h ambulatory blood pressure measurements (ABPM) in an unselected elderly population. In a rural Finnish community 503 randomly chosen invited persons over 65 years of age participated and went through 24-h ABPM. As part of the validation of the methodology, the reproducibility study was conducted in 26 persons (age 65-76 years). Two identical sets of measurement were performed at 4-12 (median 8) month intervals. The agreement between measurements was assessed by correlation coefficients and standard deviation (SD) of the differences. There were no significant differences in 24-h, daytime and night-time average diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and daytime average systolic blood pressure (SBP) between the two measurements. During the second measurement, 24-h SBP and night-time average SBP were slightly higher than those obtained by the first monitoring. Average 24-h SBP and DBP were 18 and 7 mmHg lower, respectively, than office blood pressure averages. The correlation coefficients were significantly higher for 24-h ambulatory blood pressure than for office blood pressure. The SD of the mean difference between visits was significantly lower for 24-h ambulatory blood pressure than for office blood pressure measurements. These findings show that the long-term reproducibility of ambulatory blood pressure is good in an elderly unselected population and better than the office blood pressure reproducibility.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Physiology, Turku University Central Hospital, Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wendelin-Saarenhovi
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Isoaho
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hartiala
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Helenius
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Kivelä
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hietanen
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D015203:Reproducibility of Results