Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring for evaluation and management of hypertensives: effect on outcome and cost effectiveness.

Blood pressure monitoring of hypertensives in the ambulatory state by automated portable devices (ABPM) as compared with casual office readings (COBPM) may predict outcome with greater precision and at an overall lower cost. Prospective trials that in random fashion require evaluation and management decisions on the basis of ABPM compared with COBPM are required to determine whether the above is true. End points such as death, stroke, or myocardial infarction occur at a low frequency rate. This would require thousands of patients to be followed 5 or more years to determine if evaluation and management by ABPM compared with COBPM results in a different outcome. A much smaller population can be used if end points are changes in left ventricular mass and left ventricular ischemia, arterial wall stiffness and thickness, endogenous creatinine clearance, renal albumin excretion, antihypertensive drug requirements, and adverse reactions. Until results from such a prospective trial are available, COBPM is the method of choice for evaluation and management of hypertensives. Automated blood pressure measurement can provide useful information in special circumstances and is of value for research purposes.