[Results and evaluation of long-term blood pressure monitoring]

Using validated equipment for ABPM (by the indirect, intermittent, oscillometric and/or auscultatory method) reproducible results for day- and night-time blood-pressure, early morning readings, and blood-pressure variability may be obtained. The frequency of recordings should be about 15-min while awake and about 30-min during sleep-time, with at least 50 validated readings in 24-h to get an informative recording. Standardization could be achieved for the normotensive mean day-time value (upper limit 135/85 mmHg) and mean night-time recording (at least minus 10% compared to the day-time mean value). Using ABPM the diagnosis of arterial hypertension may be optimized, e.g. patients with white-coat hypertension could be discovered as well as those with diminished day-night rhythm ("non-dippers"); with the latter condition cerebral or myocardial damage might occur as consequence of primary hypertension; even more so, secondary hypertension may be discovered in patients with "non-dipper" constellation. In respect to therapy, a "profile-adjusted" medication may be obtained by ABPM; side-effects, which could be produced by "overtreatment", may be discovered. Since day- as well as night-time values, possibly even early morning pressures and the blood-pressure variability are positively correlated to cerebral and cardiovascular complications, ABPM becomes an important prognostic tool.