Ambulatory and home blood pressure monitoring in people with chronic kidney disease. Time to abandon clinic blood pressure measurements?

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: There is currently much interest in the usefulness of out-of-office blood pressure (BP) for the diagnosis and the management of hypertension in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). This is not to suggest that office BP should be disregarded and we will take the opportunity to stress how it could be improved.

RECENT FINDINGS: Arterial hypertension constitutes a very relevant cardiovascular and renal risk factor in patients with CKD. To assess this risk, the best tool is ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), as it allows the detection of masked hypertension, masked untreated hypertension (MUCH) and nondipping pattern, conditions known to be associated with target organ damage that further contributes to increased risk to the patient. Home BP monitoring (HBPM) cannot fully substitute for ABPM because of the absence of BP data during the night. Despite this, there are good reasons to use HBPM systematically in patients with CKD during long-term follow-up.

SUMMARY: In the individual patient office, BP may significantly differ from out-of-office measurements. This shortcoming can be attenuated by repeated measurement at every visit, but even if office BP is considered normal, it is still highly desirable to obtain out-of-office data.