Hypertension News:

Doctors Should Consider Home Blood Pressure Readings in Treatment Decisions

Doctors should not make hypertension treatment decisions based solely on the blood pressure readings that they have taken in their offices of patients, according to a study reported in the August 3rd issue of the British Medical Journal.

British researchers said the doctors should also take into account the blood pressure readings that patients themselves have taken at home as well as those taken by nurses. Doing so would, they added, would counteract the so-called "white coat effect," in which patient discussions with their doctors during a measurement have been shown to increase blood pressure.

Eight doctors and three nurses participated in the research involving 200 patients, who had either been newly diagnosed with high blood pressure or were already receiving treatment.

Blood pressure readings were repeatedly made by either a nurse, home measurement, ambulatory monitoring or by a doctor. The researchers found readings made by the doctors were high in comparison to those by the nurses or measured by the patients at home. Overall the home measurement system performed significantly better than all other methods and was also preferred best by patients, according to the researchers.

"The white coat effect is important in diagnosing and assessing control of hypertension in primary care and is not a research artefact," concluded the researchers. "If ambulatory or home measurements are not available, repeated measurements by a nurse or the patient should result in considerable less unnecessary monitoring, initiation and changing of treatment. It is time to stop using high blood pressure readings by general practitioners to make decisions about treatment."

Source: Hypertension Week of August 11, 2002