[Home blood pressure measurement].
Measurement of blood pressure (BP) by the own patient at home has become a popular procedure. Both a great offer of simple electronic devices and publication of multiple studies supporting its usefulness for the diagnosis and control of hypertension have contributed to this fact. In fact, this technique has various advantages over the conventional clinical measurement such as a higher reproducibility, better representation of the usual BP profile of the patient, greater correlation with target organs damage and greater morbimortality predictive value. Besides, there is a potential benefit on the control of patients under antihypertensives and, maybe, a reduction in health expenses at long-term follow-up. Currently, the main hypertension societies recommend the home measurement of BP in some clinical situations. However, it cannot be considered an alternative to the clinical measurement but rather a complementary technique in the evaluation of the hypertensive patient. Here we review the indications and limitations of this procedure in clinical practice.
Unidad de Hipertensión y Riesgo Vascular, Servicio de Medicina Interna, Hospital La Paz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain. jrvillagrasa@terra.es
María Angeles
MA
Martínez-López
Juan
J
García-Puig
D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012648:Self Care