Does White Coat Hypertension Affect the Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke?
A. There are now several large studies which have examined the long-term outlook for patients with white coat hypertension. Almost all have found that patients with a diagnosis of white coat hypertension have a risk of strokes and heart attacks which is the same as or only slightly higher than people whose pressure is normal all the time, and lower than patients with sustained hypertension, whose pressure is still high when they are out of the office. It should also be emphasized that having a diagnosis of white coat hypertension does not confer immortality; patients with white coat hypertension can have strokes and heart attacks just like anybody else if they smoke and have a high cholesterol.
