24 h blood pressure monitoring can help to define which is the optimal timing and frequency of measurements

Hypertension is a common condition in modern society. As blood pressure fluctuates with time, a single blood pressure measurement is useless to diagnose hypertension. Nevertheless, a questionable not well-defined number of measurements still is often used for this purpose. Diagnosis and therapeutic control of hypertension are therefore suboptimal. This study's objective is to determine the number and timing of measurements needed to give a trustworthy approximation of an individual's average blood pressure. Therefore, 24 h ambulatory blood pressure measurements were retrospectively analyzed.

Inclusion Criteria:

• 70 per cent of valid measurements

Exclusion Criteria:

• none

Arterial hypertension, HBPM, 24h ABPM, optimal diagnosis