This article reviews the clinical value of ambulatory blood pressure (BP) vis-à-vis the traditional BP measurements taken in the physician's office or in the hospital. Mention is initially made that longitudinal studies conducted in the general population or in hypertensive cohorts have shown that ambulatory BP provides a more accurate prediction of outcome than office BP. Namely, that (1) the ...

BACKGROUND We tested the hypothesis that the steady and pulsatile components of blood pressure (BP) exert a different influence on coronary artery disease and stroke in subjects with hypertension. METHODS AND RESULTS We analyzed data on 2311 subjects with essential hypertension. All subjects (mean age 51 years, 47% women) underwent off-therapy 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring. Over a follow-u...

BACKGROUND Nifedipine gastrointestinal therapeutic system (GITS) is used to treat angina and hypertension. The authors aimed to study the early intervention impact on arterial stiffness and pulse wave velocity (PWV) independent of its blood-pressure-(BP) lowering effect in mild hypertensive patients. METHODS This single-center, single-arm, open-label, prospective, Phase IV study recruited pat...

The obesity epidemic has focused attention on relationships of sugars and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to cardiovascular risk factors. Here we report cross-sectional associations of SSBs, diet beverages, and sugars with blood pressure (BP) for United Kingdom and US participants of the International Study of Macro/Micronutrients and Blood Pressure. Data collected include four 24-hour dietary...

The perfusion pressure in the cerebral capillaries combined with arterial blood pressure creates shear stresses that deform RBCs as they traverse microvessels. Our results show that in cerebral infarction, especially in hypertensive patients, RBCs are more sensitive to lowered shear stresses. Hence, hypotension in acute stroke might induce microcirculatory disorders because capillaries can be w...

OBJECTIVES The impact of different blood pressure (BP) components during the acute stage of stroke on the risk of recurrent stroke is controversial. The present study aimed to investigate by 24 hour BP monitoring a possible association between acute BP values and long term recurrence. METHODS A total of 339 consecutive patients with first ever acute stroke underwent 24 hour BP monitoring with...

Several shorter-term alternatives for whole-day ambulatory monitoring of blood pressure using Pressurometer III or conventional sphygmomanometer were evaluated in 12 male patients with mild hypertension. Averages of BP reading at 8 AM once, 3 consecutive-readings either with Pressurometer or manually, serial readings for 2-hour intervals from 8-10 AM and 2-4 PM were compared with that of 24-hou...

Short-term blood pressure (BP) variability predicts cardiovascular complications in hypertension, but its association with large-artery stiffness is poorly understood and confounded by methodologic issues related to the assessment of BP variations over 24 hours. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV) and 24-hour ambulatory BP were measured in 911 untreated, nondiabetic patients with uncomp...

Bullous pemphigoid (BP) is an autoimmune bullous skin disease characterized by anti-BP180 and anti-BP230 autoantibodies (AAbs). Mucous membrane involvement is an uncommon clinical feature of BP which may evoke epidermolysis bullosa acquisita, another skin autoimmune disease characterized by anti-type VII collagen AAbs. We therefore evaluated the presence of anti-type VII collagen AAbs in the se...

INTRODUCTION Automatic blood pressure (BP) measuring devices are more and more often used in BP self-checks and in 24-hour BP monitoring. Nowadays, 24-hour BP monitoring is a necessary procedure in arterial hypertension treatment. The aim of this study was to validate the BPLab(®) ambulatory blood pressure monitor according to the European standard BS EN 1060-4:2004 and the British Hypertension...