Ambulatory BP monitoring in healthy normotensive men reveals significant diurnal variation and frequent transient elevations in blood pressure, particularly in those with a family history of hypertension.
Higher daytime than casual BP in normotensive men warrants caution with clinic readings; leaves open ambulatory monitoring's role in risk stratification.
• Noninvasive automated ambulatory BP monitoring techniques were used to evaluate BP patterns in 34 healthy normotensive men. Daytime BPs (128±12/80±7 mm Hg) were significantly higher and nighttime BP averages (109±11/67±9 mm Hg) were significantly lower than the casual BPs (119±13/76±9 mm Hg) of the subjects studied. On the average, 15.6% of the readings in each tracing showed systolic BPs above 140 mm Hg, and more than 25% of these elevated readings were found in six of the 34 subjects. The average incidence of elevated diastolic BPs (>90 mm Hg) observed during each monitoring period was 14.4%, but six subjects had incidences of more than 25%. The incidence of elevated BP readings was not age related. However, subjects with a family history of hypertension generally had more elevated systolic BPs than those with no family history of hypertension (24% v 9%). (Arch Intern Med1985;145:271-274)
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
J. I. Drayer (1985) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: