[Ambulatory blood pressure measurement].

Non-invasive ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is used as an additional diagnostic procedure particularly in specialist hypertension care. One application is diagnosing white coat hypertension. In general practice there is no established place for this diagnostic tool so far. At this time several studies are being carried out to investigate the prognostic value of ABPM. There are protocols of validation for ABPM monitors; nine of the 45 available up to now have been approved by the two most important test protocols. Reference values for normotension and hypertension are determined for the general population, but not for special groups of patients or for exercise conditions. One of the frequently mentioned advantages of ABPM over office blood pressure reading is the higher correlation of ABPM with hypertensive organ damage. To a large extent this superiority is based on the larger number of blood pressure readings. Repeated standardized office measurements reduce this advantage of ABPM.