What does ambulatory blood pressure mean?

Ambulatory blood pressure is an outpatient blood pressure measuring by numerous readings over a 24-hour period or longer, while the person is conducting normal daily activities. On contrary to clinical blood pressure measuring, the ambulatory blood pressure technique with it's repeated, previously planned measurements , reflects more accurately the blood pressure profile and it's variable behavior over a 24-h period, away from the medical environment, thereby allowing identification of individuals with a white-coat hypertension.


Number of studies in past  decade support the thesis that ambulatory blood pressure technique is not just a perfect solution to observe and estimate the blood pressure variability in period of time, but it is also the key method for discovering nocturnal hypertension, correlation between the hypertension and end-organ damage or morning surge caused by the day-night time fluctuation of blood pressure. Finally, the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring technique can demonstrate the efficacy of anti-hypertensive medication over a 24-h period or identify patients whose blood pressure does not reduce at night (“non-dippers”) and who are at greater risk for cardiovascular morbidity.


Today, we can freely say that ambulatory blood pressure measuring technique is not only able to demonstrate a number of patterns of blood pressure behavior that may be relevant to clinical management, but it is a superior predictor of cardiovascular morbidity compared to the clinical blood pressure measurement.