Ambulatory blood pressure measuring devices

During the last 6 years ABPM has become a widely used method in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertensive patients as well as in correlating the disease to prognosis. Up to January 1995, the international market offered 43 devices from 31 manufacturers. In Germany there are 18 devices available on the market from 10 different manufactures. Mainly, two different techniques are applied, ausculation and oscillometry, each having some advantages and disadvantages: The oscillometric technique may be preferable in patients with hyperkinetic circulation (e.g., pregnancy), with ausculatory gap and when surrounding noises are interfering, whereas the auscultatory technique, being the original method, has some advantages in patients with dysrhythmias and atrial fibrillation, as well as in dynamic (bicycle) exercise. The auscultatory method may be optimized by using ECG-, respectively oscillometric gating. The future development, which has already been realized in seven international recorders, offers the opportunity of either using auscultatory and/or oscillometric techniques during the same recording. To estimate the "true" sleeping interval more precisely a "day-night-button" at the recorder side is helpful. Furthermore, an uniform computer printout of the mean values of day- and night-time intervals, together with the widely approved limits of normotension should be achieved; last, but not least, an important factor for the widespread use of ABPM in general practice, as well as in the hospital, will be the prices of the recorders. Which have been reduced to about DM 3000-6000 in Germany (January 1996).