title: Evaluation of prehypertension and masked hypertension rate among clinically normotensive patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The present cross-sectional study was aimed to identify pre-hypertension and masked hypertension rate in clinically normotensive adults in relation to socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory parameters.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 161 clinically normotensive adults with office blood pressure (OBP) <140/90 mmHg without medication were included in this single-center cross-sectional study. OBP, home BP (HBP) recordings and ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) were used to identify rates of true normotensives, true pre-hypertensives and masked hypertensives. Data on sociodemographic and clinical characteristics were collected in each subject and evaluated with respect to true normotensive vs. pre-hypertensive patients with masked hypertension or true pre-hypertensive. Target organ damage (TOD) was evaluated in masked hypertensives based on laboratory investigation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Masked hypertension was identified in 8.7% of clinically normotensives. Alcohol consumption was significantly more common in masked hypertension than in true pre-hypertension (28.6 vs. 0.0%, p = 0.020) with risk ratio of 2.7 (95% CI 1.7-4.4). Patients with true pre-hypertension and masked hypertension had significantly higher values for body mass index, waist circumference, systolic and diastolic OBP and HBP (p < 0.05 for each) compared to true normotensive subjects. ABPM revealed significantly higher values for day-time and night-time systolic and diastolic BP (p = 0.002 for night-time diastolic BP, p < 0.001 for others) in masked hypertension than true pre-hypertension.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Given that the associations of pre-hypertension with TOD might be attributable to the high prevalence of insidious presentation of masked hypertension among pre-hypertensive individuals, ABPM seems helpful in early identification and management of masked hypertension in the pre-hypertensive population.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Family Medicine , Cankiri Public Hospital , Cankiri , Turkey .
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Unsal
authors.affiliation: b Department of Family Medicine , Hitit University , Corum , Turkey .|c Department of Family Medicine , Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital , Ankara , Turkey .
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ozkara
authors.affiliation: c Department of Family Medicine , Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital , Ankara , Turkey .
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Albayrak
authors.affiliation: d Department of Biochemistry , Gazi University Medical Faculty Hospital , Ankara , Turkey .
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ozturk
authors.affiliation: e Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism , Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Training and Research Hospital , Ankara , Turkey , and.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beysel
authors.affiliation: f Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism , Hitit University , Corum , Turkey.
authors.forename: F K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Kucukler
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D018660:Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019468:Disease Management; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D059468:Masked Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology; D058246:Prehypertension / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D015995:Prevalence; D013599:Systole; D055105:Waist Circumference; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Prehypertension; ambulatory blood pressure monitoring; home blood pressure; masked hypertension; office blood pressure