Prevalence of White Coat Hypertension among the Patients Visiting in a Tertiary Care Center, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Background Hypertension is a major cardiovascular risk factor. White coat hypertension refers to elevated office blood pressure but normal out of office blood pressure. White-coat hypertension has a risk of cardiovascular events more than normotensives. Objective To identify the prevalence of white coat hypertension among patients presented in the cardiology department. Method The descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 165 patients who visited the cardiology outpatient department of Kathmandu Medical College and Teaching Hospital from December 2017 to November 2018. Blood pressure was measured at the hospital, and ambulatory blood pressure device was used to monitor 24hrs pattern. Hypertension is classified as per recent guideline. Data were entered and analysed using Statistical Package for social sciences version 20. Result Out of 165 ambulatory blood pressure monitoring conducted patients, 140 participants were enrolled in the study based on inclusion criteria. Among them 55% (77) were male, and 45% (63) were female. Age ranged from 18-78 years with a mean of 43.82 ± 12.31 years. Overall among 140 participants 14.28% had white coat hypertension, however, after excluding twenty-two high normal group, among 118 participants who were hypertensive according to office BP, 16.9% (20) had white coat hypertension, and 33.57% of patients did not have nocturnal dipping of blood pressure. Conclusion The white coat hypertension is prevalent among around one-sixth of hypertensive patients visiting tertiary care centre, and one third have non-dipping which needs to be considered in the management of hypertension.