About ABPM

Why do you, as a healthcare professional, need an ambulatory blood pressure monitor (also known as ABPM)?

Over the previous 20 years or more, the accuracy of using the conventional way for blood pressure measurement (the sphygmomanometer and Korotkoff's sounds) has been questioned, and several efforts have been done to improve measurements with the aid of automated devices. During the same time, the phenomenon of hypertension (especially white coat hypertension) has been internationally recognised. This phenomenon reflects to the fact when some patients who apparently have raised blood pressure in case of timely measurements, have normal blood pressure if the measurement is done away from the medical environment.

This issue has focused attention on methods of measurement which are able to provide full profiles of blood pressure rather than relying on isolated, seperate measurements made under circumstances which may influence blood pressure significantly. These other methods have included repeated measurements of blood pressure with the aid of using the traditional technique, by doing self measurement of blood pressure at home or at the workplace, and the new way: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (24 hour blood pressure) by using automated devices. Ambulatory monitoring has proved to be advantageous over the traditional methods because it provides multiple measurements throughout the whole day and night periods.