Postgraduate medical journal
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We have retrospectively compared the blood pressure load derived from 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in patients with all clinic blood pressure readings elevated with those with only some elevated pressures to establish whether clinic readings alone are good predictors of blood pressure status. Fifty-seven patients attending a district general hospital hypertension clinic who were not on anti-hypertensive treatment were selected. Between two and six clinic readings were taken over a period of 1-6 months. ⋯ Diastolic pressures have some predictive power as to the blood pressure status defined by blood pressure load, but even consistently raised diastolic pressures do not necessarily indicate hypertension. Likewise one or more clinic diastolic blood pressure < 90 mmHg does not assuredly indicate normotension. Twenty-four hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring may have an increasingly important role in the assessment of hypertension.