title: Asking the Patient or Measuring Blood Pressure in the Emergency Department: Which One is Best?
abstract: Blood pressure (BP) is obtained at the emergency department (ED) in the vast majority of patients; irrespective of chief complaint, and elevated BP, above the threshold for hypertension, is a common observation. In this review, we address the predictive value of measured BP in the ED compared to that of a history of hypertension in patients with chief complaints related to cardiovascular disease. In chest pain patients, a high BP at the ED is associated to a good prognosis, whereas the history of hypertension is associated to a poor prognosis. In heart failure, a high admission BP is consistently linked to a good prognosis, whereas the clinical value of history of hypertension in the ED is unknown. In stroke, there is a U-shaped relation between admission BP and outcome. A history of hypertension is common among stroke patients but does not seem to provide any predictive value in the ED.
authors.affiliation: Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine Solna, Internal Medicine Unit and Department of Emergency Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, F4:03, 17176, Stockholm, Sweden. per.skoglund@karolinska.se.
authors.forename: Per H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Skoglund
authors.affiliation: Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medicine Solna, Internal Medicine Unit and Department of Emergency Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, F4:03, 17176, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Svensson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000959:Antihypertensive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001795:Blood Pressure Determination; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D000959:Antihypertensive Agents
keywords: Antihypertensive treatment; Blood pressure; Chief complaints; Emergency department; Hypertension; Hypertension prognosis