Simultaneous recording of blood pressure and ST-segment with combined, triggered ambulatory 24-h devices

Silent myocardial ischemia is defined as an ischemic episode without chest pain but with transient ST abnormalities during stress testing or Holter monitoring. With Holter monitoring the prevalence of silent myocardial ischemia in hypertensive patients without coronary artery disease is between 25% and 73%. Simultaneous recording of ambulatory 24-h ECG and 24-h ambulatory blood pressure measurements (ABPM) with the option of additional ST-triggered blood pressure measurement is useful to detect silent ischemia and triggers of silent ischaemia. It is surprising that only a few combined 24-h Holter/ABPM devices are on the market, and in turn only three devices allow additional triggered blood pressure measurements. The paper provides an overview of studies investigating hypertensive patients with Holter monitoring for the detection of ST segment depression indicating myocardial ischaemia. Furthermore, requirements for combined devices allowing simultaneous ambulatory 24-h ECG and ABPM are defined.