ABPM

Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) provides an accurate and reliable measurement of blood pressure throughout the day and night, thus providing valuable diagnostic information beyond what is routinely provided in-clinic or with home blood pressure monitoring.

ABPM can help monitor:

True blood pressure during day-to-day activities – helps diagnose ‘white coat’ hypertension
How much blood pressure falls during sleep – dipper status
Morning surges in blood pressure
Total burden of hypertension

Why the test is performed

ABPM is a valuable tool for diagnosing and managing multiple conditions:

“White coat” hypertension: When elevated blood pressure measurements are recorded in the physician’s office, but blood pressure readings outside the physician’s office are within the normal range. It is estimated that one in three patients with high blood pressures might have white coat hypertension.

Resistant hypertension: When multiple anti-hypertensive medications fail to adequately control high blood pressure.
Masked hypertension: When in-office measurements fall within an acceptable range, but the mean blood pressure is actually above the acceptable range.

Hypotension: Sometimes hypertensive therapy can be associated with low blood pressures. This can be dangerous, particularly in patients with diabetes or with a history of stroke. Ambulatory monitoring can detect asymptomatic drops in blood pressure.

Diagnosing nocturnal non-dipper status: Healthy individual’s systolic blood pressures drop at least 10% while they sleep as compared to systolic blood pressures during the day. Individuals who are non-dippers, whose blood pressure does not drop, are at increased risk of cardiovascular events.