White-Coat Effect Accounts for One Third of Resistant Hypertension Cases

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring reveals the prevalence and characteristics of true versus white-coat resistant hypertension.

The prevalence of resistant hypertension (RH), defined as persistent elevation in office-measured blood pressure (BP) despite the use of three or more antihypertensive agents (including a diuretic), is not well established. To find out more, investigators used data from the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM) Registry, funded by the developer of an ABPM platform and network. Of 68,045 patients treated for hypertension, 8295 had RH (51.4% men; mean age, 64.4; mean duration of hypertension, 11.1 years). Of these, half were obese, 13% were smokers, and 32% had type 2 diabetes.

According to ABPM findings, 62.5% of the RH patients had true RH, and 37.5% had normal values on ABPM and were considered to have white-coat hypertension.…

Reviewing Author

Joel M. Gore, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH–National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

Joel M. Gore, MD

Disclosures

Grant/Research SupportNIH–National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

White-Coat Effect Accounts for One Third of Resistant Hypertension Cases

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Reviewing Author