Importance of average blood pressure measured by 24 hour BP monitoring

Importance of average blood pressure measured by 24 hour BP monitoring

Importance average blood pressure: Devices for monitoring ambulatory blood pressure are becoming more popular, with more and more hospitals acquiring these devices and they can measure the average blood pressure. It can monitor blood pressure at varying preset intervals as specified in the device program. Average daily blood pressure can also be derived from the computer analysis of the recordings.

William B White, Leslie Wolfson, Dorothy B Wakefield, Charles B Hall, Patrick Campbell, Nicola Moscufo, Julia Schmidt, Richard F Kaplan, Godfrey Pearlson and Charles R G Guttmann investigated the role of average blood pressure on the progression of cerebrovascular disease and cognitive decline in the elderly [1]. They evaluated ambulatory and clinic measured blood pressure, gait studies, magnetic resonance imaging of the brain and neuropsychological tests performed at baseline and at two years follow up. They documented that ambulatory blood pressure correlated with increased white matter hyperintensity volume on T2 weighted imaging, but not the clinic measured blood pressure. Similar correlation was noted with measures of executive function and processing speed of the brain.

Reference

1. William B White, Leslie Wolfson, Dorothy B Wakefield, Charles B Hall, Patrick Campbell, Nicola Moscufo, Julia Schmidt, Richard F Kaplan, Godfrey Pearlson, Charles R G Guttmann. Average Daily Blood Pressure, Not Office Blood Pressure, Is Associated With Progression of Cerebrovascular Disease and Cognitive Decline in Older People. Circulation. 2011 Nov 22;124(21):2312-9.