Usefulness of ambulatory blood pressure measurement for hypertension management in India: the India ABPM study

The present paper reports differences between office blood pressure (BP) measurement (OBPM) and ambulatory blood pressure measurement (ABPM) in a large multi-centre Indian all comers' population visiting primary care physicians. ABPM and OBPM data from 27,472 subjects (aged 51 ± 14 years, males 68.2%, treated 45.5%) were analysed and compared. Patients were classified based on the following hypertension thresholds: systolic BP (SBP) ≥ 140 and/or diastolic BP (DBP) ≥90 mmHg for OBPM, and SBP ≥ 130 and/or DBP ≥ 80 mmHg for 24-h ABPM, and SBP ≥ 120 and/or DBP ≥ 70 mmHg for night-time ABPM and SBP ≥ 135 and/or DBP ≥ 85 mmHg for daytime ABPM, all together. White coat hypertension (WCH) was seen in 12.0% (n = 3304), masked hypertension (MH) in 19.3% (n = 5293) and 55.5% (n = 15,246) had sustained hypertension. Isolated night-time hypertension (INH) was diagnosed in 11.9% (n = 3256). Untreated subjects had MH relatively more often than treated subjects (23.0% vs. 14.8%, p