“White Coat Syndrome” Common Among Hypertensive Patients

More than a third of hypertension patients actually suffer from “white coat syndrome”, a condition where their blood pressure increases whenever they visit a doctor, a new research conducted by University of Barcelona in Spain reveals. The researchers observed over 69,000 hypertension patients of whom 8,200 suffered from resistant high blood pressure and found that around 37 percent of those with resistant hypertension had white coat syndrome with the condition more widespread among men (42 percent) compared to women (34 percent).

Writing in the report, which has been published in the journal Hypertension, the researchers said that doctors should also check ambulatory blood pressure in order to arrive at the actual blood pressure readings.

“Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring should be mandatory in resistant hypertension patients to define true and 'white coat' hypertension. Patients benefit by knowing whether their blood pressure is normal during daily activities or still needs the reinforcement of dietary and drug measures to achieve the goal”, lead researcher Dr. Alejandro de la Sierra said.


Source-Medindia