[Casual arterial pressure versus ambulatory continuous monitoring of arterial pressure].

Ambulatory continuous blood pressure monitorization (ACBPM) has shown that casual blood pressure (CBP) obtained at the Doctors' office is accompanied by alarm reaction (AR) which could overestimate the true blood pressure. We placed a ACBPM (24 hours) in 190 subjects (35 normotense and 155 hypertense). In normotense subjects the CBP was 137 +/- 19/84 +/- 9 mmHg and the mean value in those 24 hours was 121 +/- 11/74 +/- 6 mmHg (p less than 0.001) while in hypertense patients it was 159 +/- 22/104 +/- 11 mmHg versus 139 +/- 17/95 +/- 9 mmHg (p less than 0.001). According to the WHO classification the number of normotense and hypertense subjects varies according to wether we recommend CBP or the mean daily ACBPM. Normotense: 37 versus 53, borderline, arterial hypertension: 22 versus 26, mild arterial hypertension: 52 versus 65, moderate arterial hypertension: 54 versus 38, severe arterial hypertension: 25 versus 8 (p less than 0.005). It is therefore observed that ACBPM offers lower blood pressure values that CBP.