The Contribution of 24-Hour Ambulatory Blood PressureMonitoring to the Treatment of Hypertensive Patients in Teaching Hospital in Nitra

Overview

Background.
Twenty-four hours ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) in patients with arterial hypertensionis a recognized method for diagnostic of hypertension and for monitoring of the effects of antihypertensivetreatment. The aim of our study was to evaluate the contribution of ABPM in clinical practise.Methods and Results. Records of ABPMin hypertensive patientswere evaluated retrospectively. Total of 37 patientsaged 27–69 years with the newly diagnosed hypertension in the period of 1996–2001 were included in the study.The indications to ABPM, percent of dippers and no dippers diagnosed on the basis of diurnal index and themodification in antihypertensive treatment in no dippers were analysed. 1) ABPM was used for monitoring of theeffect of antihypertensive therapy in 78 %, for diagnosing borderline hypertension in 19 % and of white coathypertension in 3 % cases; 2) 22 patients (59 %) were diagnosed as no dippers; 3) Antihypertensive therapy wasmodified in 7 patients no dippers (20 %).Conclusions. The contribution of ABPM is obvious, however at current conditions its broader application couldincrease the diagnostic and therapeutical quality of clinical decision making in hypertensive patients.

Key words:
hypertension, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, dipper, nondipper, antihypertensive therapy.