[The role and importance of ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure in the diagnosis, control and therapy of hypertension].

For the diagnosis, control and treatment of hypertension for non-invasive assessment of the blood pressure at present a combination of three methods is used. Clinical assessment (by a physician in the surgery or in bed in bedridden patients) is the basic approach, if necessary supplemented by assessment at home and/or ambulatory monitoring of the blood pressure. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory monitoring can provide representative blood pressure readings. It furnishes information which cannot be obtained in another way; if correctly indicated and the results are used in practice, it is effective and economical. It permits evaluation of the blood pressure response to physical and emotional activity in the course of the day, to assess changes of blood pressure during sleep and to define the prognosis of the disease more accurately. It makes it possible to establish a correct indication of medicamentous therapy, selection of effective drugs and correct timing of the doses. In the submitted paper the authors describe also the limitations of the method as well as possible complications during implementation. Long-term monitoring of the blood pressure should resolve special problems in selected groups of patients. In indicated cases it should be available also in this country and introduced to an appropriate extent also in selected departments concerned with hypertensiology.