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Target organ damage in "white coat hypertension" and "masked hypertension"

Vasilios Kotsis1, Stella Stabouli, Savvas Toumanidis

  • 1Department of Medicine, Aristotle University, Thessaloniki, Greece. bkotsis@med.uoa.gr

American Journal of Hypertension
|February 23, 2008
PubMed

Insights

White coat hypertension (WCH) and masked hypertension (MH) are common in new patients. MH and confirmed hypertension are linked to increased left ventricular mass and carotid intima media thickness, indicating target organ damage.

Area of Science:

  • Cardiology
  • Hypertension Research
  • Diagnostic Medicine

Background:

  • Investigated prevalence of white coat hypertension (WCH) and masked hypertension (MH) in treatment-naive patients.
  • Assessed the association between WCH, MH, and target organ damage.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Determine the prevalence of WCH and MH in newly diagnosed hypertensive patients.
  • Examine the relationship between these hypertension subtypes and indicators of target organ damage.

Main Methods:

  • 1,535 patients underwent office blood pressure (BP) and 24-h ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM).
  • Echocardiography and carotid artery ultrasonography were performed to assess target organ damage.
  • WCH defined as office hypertension with ambulatory normotension; MH as office normotension with ambulatory hypertension.

Main Results:

  • WCH prevalence was 17.9%; MH prevalence was 14.5%.
  • WCH was more prevalent in obese subjects; MH was more prevalent in normal-weight subjects.
  • Confirmed hypertension and MH showed significantly increased left ventricular mass (LVM) and carotid intima media thickness (cIMT) compared to normotensive subjects.

Conclusions:

  • WCH and MH are frequent in hypertension outpatient clinics.
  • Confirmed hypertension and MH are associated with subclinical target organ damage (increased LVM and cIMT), even after risk factor adjustment.
Abstract

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