Mule G, Cottone S, Piazza G, Volpe V, Lisi A, Gallano S, Cerasola G
Home blood pressure measurements: relationship with clinic and blood pressure monitoring
11th Scientific Meeting, American Society of Hypertension
Am J Hypert (Apr) 9:113A 1996

The growing use of home blood pressure monitoring has led to an plethora of compact machines available to the consumer. Unfortunately, little is known about how good home blood pressure is in the diagnosis, treatment and outcome of hypertensive subjects.

The authors studied nineteen hypertensive subjects (42 years) with clinic, home and ambulatory blood pressure measurements. Home readings were taken at 8am, 4pm and 8pm on both working and non working days. Home blood pressure was similar to ambulatory readings and the 8am readings showed a high correlation to ambulatory readings. The authors recommended the use of the 8am or the overall home average for use in hypertensive patients.

Comment: This study is very limited but provides an impetus for further studies in the use of home blood pressure measurement. Home blood pressure measurment can be an effective tool for some hypertensive subjects to monitor trends in their home blood pressure and this may encourage compliance with lifestyle modifications. The methods used in this abstract to compare the blood pressures by correlation coefficients is fraught with problems and comparibility of the methods should rest on using the methods of Bland-Altman or other robust methods. Any patient who owns a home monitoring device should have it checked against a mercury sphygmomanometer for accuracy. (George Mansoor, M.D., University of Connecticut)

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11th Scientific Meeting, American Society of Hypertension
H: Exam and lab tests : Ambulatory monitoring