Summary:
Conventional office measurements of blood pressure (BP) are limited in their ability to assess long term
hemodynamic load on cardiovascular system. The ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) offers the
advantage of providing multiple blood pressure measurements from a subject’s normal environment during his normal
activities, thereby revealing important patterns of blood pressure during the whole 24-hour period. Results of ABPM
have much better correlation with end organ damage than casual BP and provide more sensitive data of ultimate
prognosis. There is much better long-term reproducibility of ambulatory blood pressure compared with conventional
office BP measurements. The phenomenon of „white coat” hypertension (WCH) defined as mean office BP readings
in the hypertensive range but ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) readings in the normal range represents probably
a benign entity not requiring pharmacological treatment. Based on normal population of school children and
adolescents the percentiles of ABP have been recently established and patterns of ABP have been studied in children
in various clinical settings. WCH has been recognized in childhood and its prevalence seems to be higher comparing
with adult population. ABPM seems to be an effective and well tolerated tool in evaluating BP in children and
adolescents helping to identify those who need careful checkup and treatment.
Key words:
ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, hypertension, white coat hypertension, childhood.
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