Crippa M, Boni E, Damiani G, Alicandri C, et al.
Clinic and ambulatory BPs show different patterns and
relationships in males and females
11th Scientific Meeting, American Society of Hypertension
Am J Hypert
(Apr) 9:103A 1996
The decision to commence antihypertensive drug therapy in patients
with borderline or intermittent blood pressure (BP) elevation is
sometimes facilitated by ambulatory BP recordings. Subjects who
display clearly elevated 24-hour averages or those with elevated BP
loads are good candidates for drug therapy. It would be prudent and
cost-effective to exclude subjects who have white-coat hypertension
and are at low cardiovascular risk.
These authors compared clinic and ambulatory BPs in 180 never treated
men and 128 women with mild hypertension. They found that although
clinic BP was similar in the two groups (153/93 mmHg in males and
152/94mmHg in females), both daytime (145/88 mmHg in males and
136/88mmHg in females) and nighttime (126/78 mmHg in males and 122/78
mmHg in females) systolic BP was higher in the males while diastolic
BP was similar in both sexes. Although the abstract gives no
comparison of body mass index, smoking status, employment status,
levels of activity, etc between the two groups, it seems that males
have higher ambulatory BP than women in this study.
Comment: Despite these findings, the decision to commence drug therapy
should
still be based on the cardiovascular risk and levels of BP of each
patient. Most patients with bordeline elevation of office BP would
probably benefit from antihypertensive therapy.
(George Mansoor, M.D., University of Connecticut)
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11th Scientific Meeting, American Society of Hypertension
H: Special problems :
Women
H: Exam and lab tests :
Ambulatory monitoring