title: Clinical utility of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in the management of hypertension.
abstract: Accurate blood pressure (BP) measurement is essential for the diagnosis, monitoring and management of hypertension. However, conventional office-based BP readings have several limitations that include a low reproducibility, the white-coat effect and the existence of masked hypertension. These limitations can be addressed through the use of ambulatory BP monitoring. Because ambulatory monitoring provides measurements at specific time intervals throughout a 24-hour period, this technique represents a better picture of the normal fluctuations in BP levels associated with daily activities and sleep. In addition, end-organ damage associated with hypertension is more closely related to ambulatory BP than office BP measurements and ambulatory BP profile give better prediction of clinical outcome than conventional BP measurements.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Pathophysiology, University Hospital "S.M. della Misericordia", Perugia, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Angeli
authors.forename: Gianpaolo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Reboldi
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Poltronieri
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bartolini
authors.forename: Cinzia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: D'Ambrosio
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: de Filippo
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Verdecchia
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000379:methods*; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology; D013997:Time Factors; D059466:White Coat Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis