Role of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in hypertensive patients having controlled office blood pressure

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring has become useful in the diagnosis and management of hypertensive individuals. In this study we tried to know the role of office and ambulatory BP in treated hypertensive patients. METHODS AND PATIENTS: Prospective cohort of 561 treated hypertensive patients were enrolled in the study. Hypertension definitions were according to JNC 8 classification. Office BP and ambulatory BP monitoring was done according to defined protocol. RESULTS: From a subgroup of 158 treated hypertensive patients, 91(16.2%) patients were having white coat hypertension (p value 0.00 by Pearson chi square test). In a subset of 403 patients who were having controlled BP on the day of enrolment as well as on the day of attaching ambulatory BP monitor; 98 (17.4%) patients were having masked uncontrolled hypertension (MUCH). In addition there was very significant percentage of non-dippers and reverse dippers. In our study we found that office BP has a moderate to low specificity and sensitivity and low negative predictive value for overall control in treated hypertensive patients. CONCLUSION: Ambulatory BP monitoring should be included in the management protocol of treated hypertensive patients, for the optimal BP control.