RESULTS OF AMBULATORY BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING IN NORMOTENSIVE AND HYPERTENSIVE SUBJECTS YOUNGSTERS

Importance of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has been expanded in the evaluation of hypertensive patients in clinical practice and scientific investigations. Although studies with ABPM have been conducted on both patients and healthy subjects in various ages, sexes and races; "normal" blood pressure (BP) definition has not been made with consensus, in this study, BPs and diurnal BPs in normotensive and hypertensive subjects between 16-35 years have been investigated with ABPM One hundred thirty four patients with essential hypertension (67 males, 67 females) and 137 normotensive healthy subjects (67 males, 70 females) between 16-35 years were enrolled in the study (n:271). Medical history has been obtained, physical examination performed, routine laboratory tests assessed and then 24-hour noninvasive ABPM has been used to measure BP. BP measurements with ABPM was lower than office BP measurements in all subjects (p<0.001). In normotensive subjects mean BP measurements in office and with ABPM were lower in women than men (p<0.001). The mean ratio of dipper male hypertensive patients (41.1%) was significantly lower than dipper female hypertensive patients (55.8%) (p<0.05). Mean body mass indices (BMI) of hypertensive males and females were significantly higher than that of normotensive subjects (p<0.001). Noninvasive ABPM is a practical method to investigate variations in diurnal BPs which could be considered as an additional cardiovascular risk factor in hypertensive patients.