Attended versus unattended automated office blood pressure measurement in the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension.

: The main advantage of automated office (AO)BP in hypertension screening is that it eliminates white-coat effect seen in routine office practice, with readings similar to awake ambulatory (A)BP. Recent studies examining the possible equivalence between AOBP recorded with and without research staff present have reported attended systolic AOBP to be 5.8 mmHg higher. Moreover, attended automated SBP readings in 27 211 patients in clinical practice were 25 mmHg higher than awake ABP. These data are consistent with the presence of staff increasing AOBP. In research studies, all types of office BP measurement at target SBP less than 130 mmHg were generally lower than awake ABP, whereas, in clinical practice, attended automated office BP was slightly higher than awake ABP. However, AOBP may still be preferred, if target BP is to be similar to 24-h ABP. Further research is needed to determine the optimum technique for recording office BP at target.