Just two months ago the European Society of Hypertension (ESH) released its new guidelines for the management and treatment of arterial hypertension at its annual meeting. ESH remains active in publishing guidance documents and has now released its latest position paper. The topic is Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM).
The new position paper is an outcome of a consensus meeting on ABPM held at the ESH annual scientific meeting in 2011. The 34 attendees agreed to prepare a comprehensive position paper on the scientific evidence for the use of ABPM. The result is a 38 page document – including references – covering all aspects of ABPM supported by published research and written by the world’s leading experts on the subject matter.
The position paper does more than just reiterate the superiority of ABPM compared to standard in-office measurement; it takes a comprehensive look at the utility of ABPM. The authors cover topics such as cost-effectiveness of ABPM, requirements for selecting devices and software, various clinical indications for ABPM, and implementation of ABPM in clinical practice.
I will definitely be referencing this document often as it is the one-stop-shop for information on ABPM.
See the abstract from the September 2013 issue of Journal of Hypertension.