Noninvasive 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring: overview of technology and clinical applications.

During the last 25 years, 24-hour noninvasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has evolved from a research tool of limited clinical use into an important tool for stratifying cardiovascular risk and guiding therapeutic decisions. Until recently, clinical use of ABPM focused on identifying patients with white-coat hypertension, but accumulated evidence now points to greater prognostic significance of ABPM in determining risk for target-organ damage compared with that of office blood pressure measurements. Clinicians involved in the care of patients with hypertension should familiarize themselves with the role of this technology and how to use it in an appropriate and cost-effective manner.