24hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring: Dipping patterns observed in a large clinic

Background: 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is currently used to monitor the blood pressure of patients for an array of reasons. Blood pressure should decrease by 10 to 20% nocturnally, termed ‘dipping’. The aim of this study was to determine the proportion of patients referred for ambulatory monitoring who had ‘normal’ nocturnal dipping pattern and further how many hypertensive patients had no dip or a nocturnal rise in BP.