The Clinical Usefulness Of Home Blood Pressure Monitoring

Hypertension remains a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. Self-monitoring of blood pressure by patients at home is currently recommended as a valuable tool for the diagnosis and management of hypertension. Unfortunately, in clinical practice, home blood pressure monitoring is often inadequately implemented, mostly due to the use of inaccurate devices and inappropriate methodologies. Thus, the potential of the method to improve the management of hypertension and cardiovascular disease prevention has not yet been exhausted. This volume presents the available evidence on home blood pressure monitoring, discusses its strengths and limitations, and presents strategies for its optimal implementation in clinical practice. Written by distinguished international experts, it offers a complete source of information and guide for practitioners and researchers dealing with the management of hypertension.

This book is the first comprehensive overview of the emerging field of cuffless blood pressure monitoring. Increasing clinical evidence proves that longitudinal measurements of blood pressure allow for earlier detection and better management of multiple medical conditions and for superior prediction of cardiovascular events. Unfortunately, today’s clinical and industry standards for blood pressure monitoring still require the inflation of a pneumatic cuff around a limb each time a measurement is taken. Over the last decades clinicians, scientists and device manufacturers have explored the feasibility of technologies that reduce or even completely eliminate the need of cuffs, initiating the era of cuffless blood pressure monitoring. Among the existing literature, this book is intended to be a practical guide to navigate across this emerging field. The chapters of the handbook have been elaborated by experts and key opinion leaders in the domain, and will guide the reader along the clinical, scientific, technical, and regulatory aspects of cuffless blood pressure monitoring.

How to play a vital role in your own health and longevity: A handbook from“one of the most reliable, respected health resources that Americans have” (Publishers Weekly). This easy-to-use guide will help you understand the many issues related to high blood pressure and assist you in preventing it, managing it, and making essential treatment decisions. · Learn which single factor you can do the most about when it comes to influencing your blood pressure. This one step may be all it takes to lower your blood pressure and keep it under control. · How losing as little as 10 pounds may reduce your blood pressure to a healthier level—includes practical help for maintaining a healthier weight. · Discover a great alternative that may lower your blood pressure just about as much as medications—without the expense of prescriptions. · Why your blood pressure goes down if you make your heart stronger—and dozens of tips to realize this goal. · How to manage your sodium intake. · Information about medications for when changes in lifestyle aren't enough and more

Blood Pressure Monitoring in Cardiovascular Medicine and Therapeutics provides information that will be especially useful to all who care for hyperten sive patients. The various chapters provide a full account of the mounting sci entific evidence that blood pressure recordings need to be obtained for proper diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy for these patients. The contributors are each directly involved in clinical studies ofhome and ambulatory blood pressure moni toring, as well as of the relationship of circadian variations in heart rate and blood pressure to cardiovascular events. As a longtime observer of the multiple facets of clinical hypertension, I have been greatly impressed with the rapid advances in this area over the last two decades. Out-of-office blood pressure monitoring has grown from a curi osity to a necessity. In order to improve the currently inadequate control of hypertension throughout the world, such monitoring should become routine in the diagnosis and treatment of every patient. The evidence for the role of out-of-office monitoring that is so well described in Blood Pressure Monitoring in Cardiovascular Medicine and Therapeutics should serve as a stimulus for the more widespread adoption of the procedure. Once this is understood, the constraints on the broader clinical use of ambulatory monitoring that now exist in the United States will be lifted as the value of such information becomes more generally recognized. In the meantime, self-recorded home measurements should be more widely utilized.

Hypertension remains a leading cause of disability and death worldwide. Self-monitoring of blood pressure by patients at home is currently recommended as a valuable tool for the diagnosis and management of hypertension. Unfortunately, in clinical practice, home blood pressure monitoring is often inadequately implemented, mostly due to the use of inaccurate devices and inappropriate methodologies. Thus, the potential of the method to improve the management of hypertension and cardiovascular disease prevention has not yet been exhausted. This volume presents the available evidence on home blood pressure monitoring, discusses its strengths and limitations, and presents strategies for its optimal implementation in clinical practice. Written by distinguished international experts, it offers a complete source of information and guide for practitioners and researchers dealing with the management of hypertension.

This publication provides action steps and resources for public health practitioners on self-measured blood pressure monitoring and is not meant to represent clinical recommendations or guidelines. It includes: A description of the burden of hypertension; A summary of the scientific evidence establishing the significance and effectiveness of SMBP plus additional support; A definition and explanation of additional support strategies for SMBP; Types and costs of home blood pressure monitors used for SMBP; Available cost data for SMBP plus additional support interventions; Health insurance coverage for SMBP; Action steps for public health practitioners on the implementation of SMBP plus additional support. This publication provides action steps for public health practitioners to facilitate the implementation of SMBP plus additional support in five key areas: understanding the environment, working with payers and purchasers, working with health care providers, spreading the word to the public, and monitoring/assessment of SMBP plus additional support implementation. For each area, relevant actions are given that can facilitate the implementation of SMBP plus additional support. A subsequent list of related electronic resources is also provided to assist with these actions, along with appendices that describe state-specific Medicaid coverage for blood pressure monitors and additional support as well as the top five insurance plans by market share in each state.

It is well known that cardiovascular events occur more frequently in the morning as blood pressure (BP) levels have been shown to increase during the period from night to early morning. In recent years, clinical research using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) or home BP monitoring has clarified that morning BP and BP surge are more closely related to the cardiovascular risk than clinical BP. This practical manual from field leading expert, Dr. Kazuomi Kario, reviews recent evidence on morning and nocturnal hypertension and the IT technologies physicians can use to support patients in home monitoring BP. Guidance on management via antihypertensive drugs is also discussed and with the aim of promoting perfect 24 hour BP control.