Aim: Hypertension is very common in primary care patients. The diagnosis of hypertension is made by office measurements and home blood pressure measurements. The aim of this study was to define the normal variation levels of blood pressure in individuals in primary care by using ambulatory blood pressure measurement.
Methods: This study was performed in primary care. Individuals who had no hypertension history were included in the study. Subjects were evaluated by using three office measurements, seven days home blood pressure measurements and 24 hours ambulatory blood pressure measurement. The ambulatory blood pressure gave us the variations in blood pressure values.
Results: The study started in January 2018 and ended in May 2018. Of the 47 subjects, 70.2% were women and 29.8% were men. The mean age was 41.63±12.00. The most common educational level was elementary school graduates. The most common occupation was housewives. Of the participants, 84.2% were married. At ambulatory blood pressure measurements, 34.0% of the subjects had mean systolic blood pressures 24 hours between 120-129 mmHg. Of the diastolic blood pressure 24 hours mean values, 15.3% had values between 80-89, where 51.0% were between the 71-79 mmHg groups. The mean value of 24 hours variation in systolic blood pressure was 15.75±18.59 (median=11.40, min=8.80, max=106.00). The 24 hours variation in the mean values of diastolic blood pressures was 12.12±10.90 (median=9.70, min=6.80, max=64.00).
Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that there were high levels of variations in normal blood pressures, which could show candidates for hypertension.
Keywords: ambulatory monitoring, blood pressure, variability, primary care
Automated office blood pressure measurements in primary care are misleading in more than one third of treated hypertensives: The VALENTINE-Greece Home Blood Pressure Monitoring study
