Ambulatory Blood Pressure Phenotypes and the Risk for Hypertension

Ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring provides valuable information on a person’s BP phenotype. Abnormal ambulatory BP phenotypes include white-coat hypertension, masked hypertension, nocturnal nondipping, nocturnal hypertension, and high BP variability. Compared to people with sustained normotension (normal BP in the clinic and on ambulatory BP monitoring), the limited research available suggests that the risk of developing sustained hypertension (abnormal BP in the clinic and on ambulatory BP monitoring) over 5 to 10 years is approximately two to three times greater for people with white-coat or masked hypertension. More limited data suggest that nondipping might predate hypertension, and no studies, to our knowledge, have examined whether nocturnal hypertension or high ambulatory BP variability predict hypertension. Ambulatory BP monitoring may be useful in identifying people at increased risk of developing sustained hypertension, but the clinical utility for such use would need to be further examined.