Automated ambulatory blood pressure monitoring: clinical utility in the family practice setting.

Although the percentage of patients who are treated for hypertension has increased, the percentage of those who demonstrate control of blood pressure has declined. As a result of this trend, clinicians may increasingly rely on ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension. Studies confirm that ambulatory blood pressure monitoring devices more accurately reflect a patient's blood pressure and correlate more closely with end-organ complications than blood pressure levels measured in the physician's office. Discriminate use of this technology in specific clinical circumstances assists in identifying patients at risk for hypertension and may result in improved outcomes in this subset of patients. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring may be particularly helpful in clinical situations such as borderline hypertension, white-coat hypertension, apparent drug resistance, hypotensive symptoms from medications or autonomic dysfunction, episodic hypertension, and evaluation of antihypertensive efficacy.