title: Persistence of Masked Hypertension in Chinese Patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Masked hypertension (MH) has 10-15% prevalence and carries risk similar to that of sustained hypertension, but its short-term persistence remains uncertain.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-five patients with MH (mean age 52.2 years; 37.8% women) were enrolled in the placebo arm of a randomized clinical trial of Chinese medicine (NCT02156024) and followed up for 4 weeks. MH was office normotension (<140/90mm Hg) and daytime (8:00-18:00) hypertension (≥135/85mm Hg).
  
  
  RESULTS
  At enrolment, office and daytime systolic/diastolic blood pressure (BP) averaged 129.0/80.6mm Hg and 132.9/88.9mm Hg, respectively. Daytime BP thresholds for MH were met in 5 patients (11.1%) for systolic BP, in 25 (55.6%) for diastolic BP and in 15 (33.3%) for both. At follow-up, systolic and diastolic BP had not changed compared with baseline (P ≥ 0.12), except for a 2.1mm Hg decrease in office systolic BP (P = 0.049). MH remained present in 28 patients (62.2%; 95% CI, 48.1-76.3%), whereas 13 (28.9%; 15.7-42.1%) and 4 (8.9%; 0.6-17.2%) converted to normotension (daytime BP <135/85mm Hg) or sustained hypertension (office BP ≥140/90mm Hg), respectively. Substituting daytime by 24-hour BP, using 130/80mm Hg as threshold, produced consistent results. Systolic office BP at baseline independently predicted persistence of MH or progression to sustained hypertension at 4 weeks (odds ratio per 1 - SD increase, 3.49; 95% CI, 1.06-11.2; P = 0.04).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The information that MH persists over 4 weeks in over two-thirds of this sample of patients should inform future clinical trials and guidelines.
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials and Center for Vascular Evaluations, Shanghai Key Lab of Hypertension, Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China;
authors.forename: Fang-Fei
authors.initials: FF
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials and Center for Vascular Evaluations, Shanghai Key Lab of Hypertension, Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China; liyanshcn@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials and Center for Vascular Evaluations, Shanghai Key Lab of Hypertension, Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China;
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials and Center for Vascular Evaluations, Shanghai Key Lab of Hypertension, Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China;
authors.forename: Xiao-Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials and Center for Vascular Evaluations, Shanghai Key Lab of Hypertension, Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China;
authors.forename: Yi-Bang
authors.initials: YB
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Center for Epidemiological Studies and Clinical Trials and Center for Vascular Evaluations, Shanghai Key Lab of Hypertension, Shanghai Institute of Hypertension, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China;
authors.forename: Ji-Guang
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Cardiology, Shandong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Jinan, Shandong, China;
authors.forename: Chuan-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Studies Coordinating Centre, Research Unit Hypertension and Epidemiology, KU Leuven Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; R & D VitaK Group, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jan A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Staessen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D002681:China; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059468:Masked Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged
keywords: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring; blood pressure measurement; hypertension; masked hypertension.