- 24 Hours Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring
Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) measures blood pressure at regular intervals. It is believed to be able to reduce the white coat hypertension effect in which a patient’s blood pressure is elevated during the examination process due to nervousness and anxiety caused by being in a clinical setting.
By measuring your blood pressure at regular intervals over 24 hours, your doctor is able to get clear pictures of how your blood pressure changes throughout the day.
The uses of Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring :
- To obtain a twenty-four hour record – more reliable than one-off measurements.
- To detect white coat hypertension.
- To see how well your medicines are working, to make sure they are controlling your blood pressure through the day.
- To see if your blood pressure stays high at night. If this is the case, they may need to change or adjust your medicines.
- To find out if your high blood pressure readings in the clinic are much higher than they are away from the clinic (called the “white coat effect”).