Role of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Measurement in Diagnosis and Control of Hypertension.

Office blood pressure (BP) measurements by sphygmomanometer are not necessarily representative of patient's usual blood pressure. In contrast, ambulatory blood pressure measurements (ABPM) represent a large number of readings and may reflect the actual BP status of an individual. In this study, 150 individuals were studied in 2 groups. 110 patients (group A) had stage I & II, hypertension based on casual BP readings. 26 (23.6%) of them were found to be normontensive as per existing ABPM standard. There were 40 patients with poorly controlled hypertension on multiple drugs (group B). The trough/peak ratio of > 50% was seen in 12.5% of these patients at start of study. This increased to 84.8% after modification of drugs as per the profile on ABPM, thus indicating usefulness in achieving a smoother control.