Understanding Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a unique method of measuring a 24-hour blood pressure (BP) which gives a detailed picture of daytime awake and nighttime asleep blood pressure. It should become a part of routine clinical examination as conventional BP monitoring cannot take into account certain problems like difference in BP at home and at the physician’s office (white coat hypertension), excess of drug causing symptoms and profile of the drug over 24 hours. Thus, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring helps to choose a better anti-hypertensive drug best suited for the patient.