A longitudinal study of the yield and clinical utility of a specifically designed secondary hypertension investigation protocol.

Objective: It has become common practice to use a day-case based approach to identify from the population of hypertensive patients those with an identifiable cause. We aimed to prospectively identify 96 consecutive hypertensive patients undergoing an algorithmic investigation protocol based around two day case hospital attendances.

Methods: The overall diagnostic yield and associated costs were recorded and the patients were observed for a mean of 2.

A website for blood pressure measuring devices: dableducational.com.

Consumers are faced with an ever-increasing array of blood pressure measuring devices, whether for use in clinical areas or for use by individuals anxious to measure their own blood pressure. Validation protocols that allow for independent evaluation of blood pressure measuring devices are available, and some of the devices on the market have been evaluated according to these protocols. The results of such evaluations have been published periodically in medical journals.

Ambulatory blood pressure measurement as a predictor of outcome in an Irish population: methodology for ascertaining mortality outcome.

Background: Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has proven to be a superior predictor of morbid events when compared to clinic or office blood pressure measurement (CBPM). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the predictive value of ABPM in a sample of 14 414 people referred for management of cardiovascular risk.

Methods: In this paper we describe the methodology required to examine mortality outcome in the absence of a national unique identifier.

Ambulatory blood pressure measurement is indispensable to good clinical practice.

The traditional technique of blood pressure measurement is being phased out in most countries and is being replaced by automated measurement. The era of automated blood pressure measurement brings its own problems, not least being the need to evaluate blood pressure measuring devices independently for accuracy. Towards this end, the Working Group on Blood Pressure Monitoring of the European Society of Hypertension has published an international protocol with the aim of having all devices assessed for basic accuracy before being put on the market.

Structure-based design of aliskiren, a novel orally effective renin inhibitor.

Hypertension is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke, myocardial infarction, and heart failure, the leading causes of death in the Western world. Inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) have proven to be successful treatments for hypertension. As renin specifically catalyses the rate-limiting step of the RAS, it represents the optimal target for RAS inhibition.

Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure in community-dwelling elderly men and women, aged 60-102 years.

Objective: To investigate ambulatory blood pressure in elderly people, including 'old elderly' subjects, aged over 80 years.

Design: Cross-sectional study of community-dwelling, elderly subjects.

Methods: Subjects were healthy, self-caring, and living independently.

Hypertensive target-organ damage in the very elderly.

In people aged >80 years, the so-called very elderly, there is uncertainty about the relation between hypertension and cardiovascular morbidity. The aims of this study were to investigate whether hypertension in people aged >80 years is associated with target-organ damage, over and above the effects of age, and to determine whether ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) could improve on conventional blood pressure monitoring (CBPM) in predicting target-organ damage. Investigations included echocardiographic measurement of left ventricular mass index (LVMI), brain magnetic resonance imaging assessment of periventricular hyperintensity (PVH), urinary albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR), aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV), and 24-hour ABPM.

Prognostic value of ambulatory blood-pressure recordings in patients with treated hypertension.

Background: It is uncertain whether ambulatory blood-pressure measurements recorded for 24 hours in patients with treated hypertension predict cardiovascular events independently of blood-pressure measurements obtained in the physician's office and other cardiovascular risk factors.

Methods: We assessed the association between base-line ambulatory blood pressures in treated patients and subsequent cardiovascular events among 1963 patients with a median follow-up of 5 years (range, 1 to 66 months).

Results: We documented new cardiovascular events in 157 patients.

Prevention of coronary and stroke events with atorvastatin in hypertensive patients who have average or lower-than-average cholesterol concentrations, in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial--Lipid Lowering Arm (ASCOT-LLA): a multicentre randomised controlled trial.

Background: The lowering of cholesterol concentrations in individuals at high risk of cardiovascular disease improves outcome. No study, however, has assessed benefits of cholesterol lowering in the primary prevention of coronary heart disease (CHD) in hypertensive patients who are not conventionally deemed dyslipidaemic.

Methods: Of 19342 hypertensive patients (aged 40-79 years with at least three other cardiovascular risk factors) randomised to one of two antihypertensive regimens in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial, 10305 with non-fasting total cholesterol concentrations 6.

Self-measured versus ambulatory blood pressure in the diagnosis of hypertension.

Objective: We examined to what extent self-measurement of blood pressure at home (HBP) can be an alternative to ambulatory monitoring (ABP) to diagnose white-coat hypertension.

Methods: In 247 untreated patients, we compared the white-coat effects obtained by HBP and ABP. The thresholds to diagnose hypertension were > or = 140/> or = 90 mmHg for conventional blood pressure (CBP) and > or = 135/> or = 85 mmHg for daytime ABP and HBP.

Silent myocardial ischaemia in treated hypertensives with and without left ventricular hypertrophy.

Background: Silent ischaemia has been reported to be associated with an increased risk of myocardial infarction and sudden death in a wide range of patient groups. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of silent ischaemia in hypertensive patients with and without left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).

Methods: Twenty hypertensive patients participating in the Anglo-Scandinavian Cardiac Outcomes Trial with echocardiographic LVH (11 males, nine females), and 20 age, sex, blood pressure, and drug treatment-matched hypertensive patients without LVH underwent 24-h combined ambulatory blood pressure and electrocardiographic (ECG) monitoring.

Determinants of white-coat syndrome assessed by ambulatory blood pressure or self-measured home blood pressure.

Background: Gender, age, smoking, race, and body mass index have been reported to determine the ambulatory white-coat effect (WCE) and white-coat hypertension (WCH).

Methods: Baseline conventional, day-time ambulatory and self-measured home blood pressure measurements from the THOP trial were used to study the effect of gender, age, body mass index, smoking habits and treatment status on the white-coat syndrome as assessed by ambulatory monitoring or self-measurement.

Results: The mean systolic/diastolic WCE was 9.

Demise of the mercury sphygmomanometer and the dawning of a new era in blood pressure measurement.

After a little more than a century of use, the conventional Riva-Rocci/Korotkoff technique of measuring blood pressure with a mercury sphygmomanometer and stethoscope, is now being relegated to the museum shelves. Affectionately attached though we may be to this clinical measurement, we must acknowledge that the technique is fraught with inaccuracy and that the age of technology has brought more accurate alternative methodologies. However, we must ensure that the automated devices that are replacing the conventional technique are validated independently for accuracy.

Cardiovascular risk in white-coat and sustained hypertensive patients.

We compared cardiovascular outcome between patients with white-coat and sustained hypertension who had previously participated in the Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring and Treatment of Hypertension (APTH) trial. Baseline characteristics, including office and ambulatory blood pressure (BP), were measured during the 2-month run-in period of the APTH trial. During follow-up, information on the occurrence of major cardiovascular events (death, myocardial infarction, stroke and heart failure), achieved office BP and treatment status was obtained.

Limitations of current validation protocols for home blood pressure monitors for individual patients.

Background: Automatic blood pressure monitoring conducted at home is increasingly used in the diagnosis and management of hypertension. We assessed the adequacy of existing British Hypertension Society (BHS) and Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) validation standards for automatic blood pressure monitoring devices.

Subject And Methods: A theoretical study and an empirical test are presented to estimate the proportion of persons for whom a blood pressure monitor validated according to existing BHS and AAMI standards would be inaccurate.

Predictive value of clinic and ambulatory heart rate for mortality in elderly subjects with systolic hypertension.

Objective: To examine the association of clinic and ambulatory heart rate with total, cardiovascular, and noncardiovascular death in a cohort of elderly subjects with isolated systolic hypertension from the Systolic Hypertension in Europe Trial.

Methods: A total of 4682 patients participated, whose untreated blood pressure on conventional measurement at baseline was 160 to 219 mm Hg systolic and lower than 95 mm Hg diastolic. Clinic heart rate was the mean of 6 readings during 3 visits.

Ambulatory pulse pressure as predictor of outcome in older patients with systolic hypertension.

We enrolled 808 older patients with isolated systolic hypertension (160 to 219/71 <95 mm Hg) to investigate whether ambulatory measurement of pulse pressure and mean pressure can refine risk stratification. The patients (> or =60 years) were randomized to nitrendipine (10 to 40 mg/day) with the possible addition of enalapril (5 to 20 mg/day) or hydrochlorothiazide (12.5 to 25 mg/day) or to matching placebos.

Quality control of the blood pressure phenotype in the European Project on Genes in Hypertension.

Objectives: In the European Project on Genes in Hypertension (EPOGH) standardized epidemiological methods were used to determine complex phenotypes consisting of blood pressure (BP) in combination with other traits. In this report, we present the quality control of one of the BP phenotypes.

Methods: In seven European countries eight different research groups recruited random samples of nuclear families.