Cardiology Letters 2015, 24(4):257-260

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring - indicator of blood pressure control

Gašpar Ľ, Vámosi R, Dukát A, Čaprnda M, Bendžala M

II. interná klinika LFUK a UN Bratislava, Nemocnica Staré Mesto, Bratislava, Slovenská republika

Objectives: Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) allows an insight into the values and variability of blood pressure over a defined period. The aim of our study was to analyse the logs ABPM and to comprehensively evaluate the contribution of this methodology not only in terms of blood pressure control and diurnal index setting, but also from the prognostic aspect.

Methods: We analysed 206 ABPM records from patients admitted to the internal department in the calendar year 2013. 15 entries (7.3%) could not be evaluated due to an insufficient number of measurements. 93 men (45%) and 113 women (55%) were divided into 4 groups according to their age. In the age group 18 to 44 were 31 people; aged 45-64 years 78 people; aged 65-74 years 52 people and aged 75 years and over 45 people. The results of ABPM permitted the identification of four different profiles based on changes in diurnal index: dippers, non-dippers, extreme dippers and risers. ABPM examinations were carried out on fully automatic devices with defined day and night phase measurements and correlated with the diary of activities and quality of sleep.

Results: In 88 subjects (42.7%) the average values of the ABPM for 24-hour monitoring were achieved. The dippers group consisted of 79 individuals (38.3%) in the group of non-dippers there were also 79 individuals (38.3%), there were risers 30 (14.6%) and there were extreme dippers 3 (1.5%). By tracking the fate of persons under investigation, we found that until June 30, 2014 19 persons died (9.2%), of which 14 were from groups with a disturbed diurnal index (9 non-dippers and 5 risers).

Conclusions: The ABPM method allows a comprehensive assessment of blood pressure parameters also in hospitalized patients. Our results point to the fact that in addition to the basic parameters of BP used as an indicator of blood pressure control, the analyses of diurnal character failures has importance in the prognostic aspect. Identifying these patients may therefore be helpful in the management of hypertension and comorbidities.

Keywords: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM); diurnal index profiles; prognosis

Published: April 1, 2015  Show citation