title: Methodological considerations in the evaluation of the duration of action of antihypertensive therapy using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
abstract: We review the potential limitations of the two current methodologies for evaluating the duration of action of antihypertensive therapy: the smoothness index (SI) and the trough : peak ratio (TP). We propose a simple correction factor for the SI. The correction factor prevents the SI from reaching erroneous high values in situations in which the reduction in blood pressure (BP) is inadequate but very homogeneous. We refer to the corrected index as the SIn (normalized SI).
authors.affiliation: Electronic Engineering Technology Department, Oregon Institute of Technology, Portland, Oregon 97006, USA. mateoaboy@ieee.org
authors.forename: Mateo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aboy
authors.forename: José R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Ramón C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Hermida
mesh_terms: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods*; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D016011:Normal Distribution
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents