Prognostic value of home blood pressure measurement

Although self-monitoring of blood pressure by patients at home is being widely used in clinical practice, the evidence on its prognostic value is still limited. Five long-term studies with nearly 60,000 patients/year have provided prognostic information for home blood pressure measurements. Differences exist among these studies regarding the population characteristics, the sample size and follow-up, the methodology and protocol for office and home blood pressure measurement and the adjustment procedure for other risk factors. All these studies, nevertheless, showed systolic home blood pressure to be a significant predictor of cardiovascular risk, and three of them also showed prognostic value of diastolic home blood pressure. Moreover, the prognostic value of home blood pressure appeared to be consistently superior to that of conventional office measurements. The prognostic significance of the white coat and the masked hypertension phenomena detected by home measurements were investigated in two studies, one in treated hypertensive patients and another in a general population sample. These studies showed that patients with white-coat phenomenon have similar cardiovascular risk as those with low office and home blood pressure, whereas the masked hypertension phenomenon is associated with high risk as in patients with uncontrolled hypertension. In conclusion, the available evidence suggests that home blood pressure has strong prognostic value, which appears to be superior to that of the conventional office measurements. More outcome studies on the prognostic value of home blood pressure, however, are needed.