The readings you take at home may be
different to the readings obtained by
your Doctor due to an effect called
“White Coat Hypertension”. White Coat
Hypertension affects a number of people
and typically results in a higher blood
pressure reading when the blood pressure
measurement is completed within a
clinical environment.
It is estimated that White Coat
Hypertension can effect between 20-25 %
of patients with mild hypertension in
the doctor's office.
White coat
hypertension is not as dangerous as
sustained hypertension (hypertension which
is present all the time). However,
individuals who have white coat hypertension
may have a higher risk of complications and
cardiovascular disease than those with
completely normal blood pressure all the
time. Another risk of white coat
hypertension is that individuals with this
condition may develop sustained hypertension
at a later time.
There are
several reasons to identify white coat
hypertension and to distinguish those
individuals whose blood pressure is only
elevated in the doctor's office. The most
important reason is to prevent unnecessary
treatment of hypertension. If blood pressure
medication is prescribed to a person who
only has elevated blood pressure in the
doctor's office, then the treatment may
cause low blood pressure at all other times,
which may result in fatigue and light
headedness. Second, it is also useful to
identify whether blood pressure elevations
are simply isolated to the doctor's office,
or whether they are present at other times
as well, for example, at work.
Ambulatory blood
pressure monitors allow a more
comprehensive assessment of a patients blood
pressure rather than just a "snapshot" at
the Doctors surgery. An ABPM is worn
continuously for 24 hours and they typically
record every 30 minutes during the day and
every 60 minutes during the night. Results
are then downloaded to a PC for analysis.
