Clinical and experimental pharmacology & physiology
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Clin. Exp. Pharmacol. Physiol. · Jan 2014
ReviewIs there a role for ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in pregnancy?
1. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) has been used in pregnancy for just over 20 years now and is generally well tolerated. Normal values have been established for different gestations; these are slightly higher than conventional blood pressure (BP) in normal pregnancy, presumably reflecting greater activity during the 24 h of ABPM recordings. 2. ⋯ The best role for ABPM is to determine whether women with office hypertension in early pregnancy have true (usually essential) hypertension or white-coat hypertension. The latter can be managed without antihypertensives and pregnancy outcomes appear good, although possibly with a slightly increased incidence of pre-eclampsia. 6. Women who have had pre-eclampsia are at greater life-time risk for cardiovascular diseases; several years postpartum these women have slightly higher ABPM-measured BP than women who had normal pregnancies and a greater propensity to metabolic syndrome.