Hypertension amongst the young adults has been on the rise. Though not all could be labeled as hypertensive white collar hypertension could be separated out in ambulatory 24 hr monitoring of blood pressure thus avoiding unnecessary
medication.

Team@CMHF

Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is the most cost-effective way to confirm a hypertension diagnosis before starting treatment, researchers found.

The cost-savings from avoiding misdiagnosis was greater with ambulatory monitoring than with further blood pressure measurements in the office or at home, Richard J. McManus, MSc, MBBS, of the University of Birmingham, England, and colleagues reported.

The traditional approach has been two repeat visits for in-office measurement after an initial finding of elevated blood pressure.

That ambulatory monitoring is cost-saving isn’t surprising because it addresses the problem of white-coat hypertension, he pointed out.
“Improved diagnosis by both home and ambulatory monitoring results in reduction of morbid or fatal, as well as expensive, events attributable to cardiovascular disease, and minimizes treatment of people who otherwise would be incorrectly labelled hypertensive,” Gaziano wrote in the commentary.

These savings “were primarily because of the costs of hypertensive treatment that were avoided because of the higher specificity of ambulatory monitoring,” the researchers noted.

If repeat screening was done on a yearly rather than every-five-year basis for those who screened negative for hypertension, home monitoring became more cost-effective for younger age groups, although “unrealistic in clinical practice where annual ambulatory monitoring would be judged excessive for most people.”

Ref: http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Hypertension/28175?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&userid=333280