How can Ambulatory Monitoring be Used to Classify Blood Pressure Level?
A. The blood pressure measured by ambulatory monitoring predicts risk better than the traditional office or clinic measured pressures, so this means that we can define hypertension independently by each of two methods- the traditional office measurements using a cutoff point of 140/90 mmHg, and the newer ambulatory method, using 135/85. Some people have high readings when measured by one method, but not by the other. As shown in the Figure, there are four groups of patients who are: 1. Normotensive by both methods (True Normotensives); 2. Hypertensive by both (True, or Sustained Hypertensives); 3. Hypertensive by clinic measurement and normotensive by ambulatory measurement (White Coat Hypertensives); and 4. Normotensive by clinic measurement and hypertensive by ambulatory measurement (Masked Hypertensives).
