Providing accurate and reliable blood pressure (readings) day and night

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) is considered the gold standard for measuring blood pressure by clinicians worldwide. It provides valuable diagnostic information that in-clinic and home blood pressure monitoring systems are incapable of measuring including:

• BP variability and a more accurate estimation of true blood pressure
• Overnight changes in blood pressure (dipper status)
• Morning surges in blood pressure

In general, ABPM is recognized in the medical community as a valuable tool for supporting the management of appropriate pharmacologic treatment as well as the assessment of1,2:

• “White coat” hypertension, when elevated blood pressure measurements are recorded in the physican’s office environment while blood pressure readings outside the physician’s office are within a normal range.
• Resistant hypertension, when multiple anti-hypertensive medications fail to adequately control high blood pressure.
• Masked hypertension, when in-office measurements fall within an acceptable range, but the mean blood pressure is actually above the acceptable range.
• Hypotensive symptoms with hypertensive medications.

The diagnostic test begins with fitting a patient with a portable monitor and BP cuff. The patient leaves and returns the next day. Over this period of time, the monitor takes measurements periodically as programmed by the clinician, generally each 15-30 minutes during awake hours and 30-45 minutes during sleeping hours. When the patient returns, these measurements are transferred to a computer where they can be easily viewed and documented in a report using the enclosed AccuWin Pro™ software. The results of ambulatory blood pressure testing provide the most comprehensive representation of a patient’s complete blood pressure profile.

1. Chobanian, AV et al. Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure. Hypertension Dec 2003. 42: 1206 – 1252. http://hyper.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/42/6/1206
2. Pickering, TG et al. Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring. New England Journal of Medicine. 354:22 2368 – 2374. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/extract/354/22/2368