Unfounded concerns about the use of automated office blood pressure measurement in SPRINT

SPRINT reported significantly fewer cardiovascular events when patients with a higher cardiovascular risk were treated to a target systolic blood pressure (BP) of <120 versus <140 mm Hg. In SPRINT, BP was recorded using the automated office BP (AOBP) method, with multiple readings being taken automatically with the patient resting alone. This technique for BP measurement eliminates the white-coat effect and gives lower BP readings than conventional manual office BP. Critics have questioned if the readings were actually taken with the subject alone and have expressed concerns about the time taken to obtain the readings and the cost of automated sphygmomanometers. Others have suggested that the findings in SPRINT can be applied to current clinical practice if a correction factor is used to convert conventional BP readings to AOBP. This article responds to these criticisms and explains why current methods for recording BP in clinical practice should be changed to AOBP, the technique for BP measurement used in SPRINT.