[Your patient self-monitors his blood pressure. Other limit values are applicable]

For self-measurement of blood pressure, two points are of great importance: proper patient instruction, and the accuracy of the measuring device. The trend towards the use of wrist-worn devices is associated with increasing numbers of measuring errors. The reason for this is usually incorrect positioning of the pickup point. Since statistics show that measurements made by the patient are clearly lower than those made in the doctor's office, the First International Consensus Conference on Blood Pressure Measurement held in 1999 established the threshold for differentiating between normo- and hypertension to be 135/85 mmHg. Thus, the use of the WHO definition of normotension in the doctor's office (< 140/90) thus represents a methodological error. Indications for self-measurement are, in particular, long-term monitoring of hypertension, monitoring of blood pressure during dose titration, identification of a "white-coat hypertension", and as a means of improving compliance. For diagnostic purposes, a measurement rate of at least 12 per week is mandatory.