How do Ambulatory Readings Compare with Office Readings ?
A. Ambulatory blood pressure recording shows that blood pressure varies a lot in everyone. There is a marked diurnal rhythm of blood pressure, with the highest readings being recorded in the morning and working hours, lower at home in the evening, and the lowest occurring during sleep. This pattern is the same in people with normal and high blood pressure, although in hypertensives all the readings are higher than in normotensives. The relationships between the office pressures and the ambulatory pressures are not the same in normotensives and hypetensives. In normotensives the office pressures are on average not as high as the pressures measured at work, while in hypertensives they are often a lot higher than the blood pressure measured during the working hours. Why should this difference occur?
