Home Blood Pressure Monitoring in Clinical Practice: A Review
Abstract
Home blood pressure monitoring is a convenient and inexpensive technique to monitor blood pressure in hypertensive patients. There are convincing data that home blood pressure monitoring is a good predictor of future cardiovascular risk, perhaps better than office blood pressure. Home blood pressure measurement can be standardized using validated instruments and systematic protocols; normative criteria have established home blood pressure >135/85 mm Hg as hypertensive. Home blood pressure monitoring has been shown to improve compliance and blood pressure control, and to reduce health care costs. Ongoing studies are evaluating management of hypertension based on home blood pressure readings compared with traditional office-based readings. Home blood pressure monitoring is particularly useful for evaluation of white coat hypertension and masked hypertension. In this article, we discuss the methodology for measuring blood pressure at home, its comparison to the other measurement techniques, the advantages and disadvantages, cost benefit analyses, and ongoing clinical trials to help define the role of home blood pressure monitoring in the clinical management of hypertension.
aDepartment of Medicine, St. Vincent's Charity Hospital, Cleveland, Ohio
bDivision of Nephrology and Hypertension, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
cRenal Section, Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Requests for reprints should be addressed to Mahboob Rahman, MD, MS, Case Western Reserve University, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, 11100 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106
Funding: None.
Conflict of Interest: None of the authors has a conflict of interest with this manuscript.
Authorship: We verify that all authors had access to the data and a role in writing the manuscript.
ABSTRACT
