Unattended automated office blood pressure measurement — current evidence and the role in clinical practice

Arterial hypertension is a leading preventable cardiovascular risk factor. The definition and thresholds for the diagnosis of hypertension vary between European and American guidelines. That is mainly due to the widely known SPRINT trial in which unattended automated blood pressure measurements were used. This technique of blood pressure estimation requires a patient to be left alone in an office and then a programmed device measures blood pressure automatically. The absence of a health professional during the measurement helps to reduce or eliminate the “white coat” effect; therefore, values of blood pressure may be lower than in conventional office blood pressure measurements. There are premises that this technique can be a solid substitution for 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure measurements and that it can predict hypertension-mediated organ damage more accurately than standard techniques. However, due to the many methods in which measurement can be carried out, no universal protocol exists. More research is needed to evaluate the usefulness of unattended automated office blood pressure measurements in clinical practice.