AMBULATORY BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING IN PRIMARY CARE – DIAGNOSTIC REALITY OF ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION

• Autor(a) principal: Paz, Gil
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Martinho, Ana Marta, Gomes, Bárbara, Bento, Ana Sofia
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.58043/rphrc.3

Introduction: Arterial hypertension is associated with high morbidity and mortality, with its prevalence estimated in Portugal at 29.1%. Blood pressure (BP) measurements in office and out-of-office are essential to confirm diagnosis. The 24-hour Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) presents itself as the gold standard, being one of the advantages versus office measurements being the identification of white and masked hypertension. However, this exam is of limited access in Primary Care (PC), so the Health Unit (HU) of São Julião purchased equipment and started to perform this exam free of charge.Objectives: To determine the profile of results and diagnoses obtained after the ABPM.Methods: Observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional study. Data were collected from ABPM related interviews at HU São Julião during 2019. According to the existence of antihypertensive therapy, we analyzed the BP values in the office and ABPM, making the diagnosis based on the guidelines of the European Society of Hypertension.Results: From 46 ABPM, 43 valid exams were included. Of the 21 ABPM performed on users without antihypertensive therapy, we identified 90.5% of hypertension and 9.5% of normotensive individuals. In individuals with hypertension, the majority presented sustained hypertension (63.5%), 21.1% white coat hypertension and 15.7% masked hypertension. In users with antihypertensive therapy, it was found that about 68.2% uncontrolled hypertension. Of these 46.6% had uncontrolled white coat hypertension, 26.7% uncontrolled masked hypertension and 26.7% sustained uncontrolled hypertension.Discussion: Similar to other studies, the studied population had a significant prevalence of white coat and masked hypertension, in individuals with or without antihypertensive treatment. These data may influence clinical practice and demonstrate the added value of accessing ABPM in PC.