[Blood pressure measurement--do not sweat the small stuff and it is all small stuff?! Position paper of the Croatian national referral center for hypertension, center of excellence of the European Society of Hypertension].
Office blood pressure measurement using mercury sphygmomanometer is the gold standard for making diagnoses of hypertension, evaluation of cardiovascular risk and estimation of obtained control of treated hypertensives. The vast majority of epidemiologic data are based on this method. However, the importance of blood pressure variability, white coat effect as well as availability of simple devices, home and ambulatory blood pressure measurements became routine parts in routine clinical work. As mercury will be soon forbidden in clinical work such devices and methodology will be even more important. In everyday clinical practice all three techniques should be implemented and in this paper advantages and drawbacks of all techniques are discussed. In the end, based on recent data and recommendations of international societies, diagnostic algorithm was proposed. Additionally, we described the technique of non-invasive central blood pressure measurement, determination of pulse wave velocity and calculation of augmentation index, new proposed risk factors.
Ana
A
Vrdoljak
Tajana Zeljković
TZ
Vrkić
Jelena
J
Kos
Ksenija
K
Vitale
Vedran
V
Premuzić
Mario
M
Laganović
Bojan
B
Jelaković
D000465:Algorithms; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis; D007391:International Cooperation; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D012955:Societies, Medical