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Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess blood pressure variability in patients with clinical normotension and ambulatory hypertension (the so-called white-coat normotension).

In 58 white-coat normotensives (mean age 64.2 ± 14.9 years; male/female ratio = 1.5:1) the authors evaluated blood pressure variability using the twenty-four-hour coef ficient of variability. Fifty-eight essential hypertensives with the same age and sex distri bution were recruited as a control group.

The coefficient of variability in white-coat normotension was greater than in the control group (14.8/16.1 ± 4.2/3.8% vs 13.5/15.1 ± 3.3/3.1%), but this difference was not statistically significant.

These findings suggest that white-coat normotension is the result of a specific relaxing response to medical visits and not the expression of an elevated blood pressure variability. It is probably due to the reverse of the alerting response, which causes white- coat hypertension.

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White-Coat Normotension and Blood Pressure Variability

Abstract

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