AMBULATORY BLOOD-PRESSURE MEASUREMENT AND THE OCCURRENCE OF HYPERTENSIVE ORGAN INVOLVEMENT

Target organ involvement in hypertensive patients carries a poor prognosis, especially echocardiographically demonstrated left ventricular hypertrophy. Conventional blood pressure measurement correlates with target organ damage and mortality. 24-Hour ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) is a better predictor of target organ involvement than conventional blood pressure measurement, but there is as yet only scant evidence that 24-hour ABPM predicts mortality. The techniques for assessing target organ involvement and the superiority of ABPM over conventional measurement in predicting target organ damage are reviewed. It is argued that if 24-hour ABPM predicts target organ damage better than conventional measurement, then the likelihood is that it will also be a better predictor of mortality than conventional measurement. The studies underway to determine this important issue are reviewed.