A NEW PROGRAMMABLE HOME BLOOD PRESSURE MONITORING DEVICE FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF NIGHTTIME BLOOD PRESSURE OF TOTAL 40 NORMOTENSIVE SUBJECTS: 4A.05:

Objective: Recent evidences indicate that both ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and home blood pressure monitoring are more useful than the measurement of office blood pressure for evaluating cardiovascular risks in subjects with hypertension. The major advantage of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring over home blood pressure monitoring is the ability to measure night time blood pressure and ambulatory blood pressure during the day. A newly developed, programmable home blood pressure monitoring device (HEM-5041, OMRON Healthcare, Kyoto, Japan) can record blood pressure up to 600 times and measure night time blood pressure automatically. Design and Methods: To validate the utility, feasibility and safety of this device, we measured blood pressure by home blood pressure monitoring using HEM-5041 and by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and compared the values in healthy volunteers. Results: A total of 40 participants (28 men and 12 women; age ranging from 21 to 47, averaged age was 24.9±0.8 years) were enrolled in this study. Average height, body weight, and body mass index were 168.2±1.2 cm, 61.7±1.5 kg, and 26.7±0.4 kg/m2, respectively. Night time blood pressures did not significantly differ between home blood pressure monitoring and ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. However, as compared with ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, daytime blood pressures, coefficients of variation for systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and pulse rate, and the % night time fall in these variables were significantly lower with home blood pressure monitoring. The results of a questionnaire survey indicated that the subjects were more comfortable when blood pressure measured by home blood pressure monitoring than by ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, whereas the quality of sleep was similar. Conclusions: Our results suggest that HEM-5041 is useful for evaluating night time blood pressures as well as night time blood pressure falls, without causing clinically significant discomfort.