Clinical & Experimental Cardiology
Open Access

Abstract

Who is the Patient with Suspected White Coat Hypertension?

Ricardo Pereira Silva, Nathalia Ribeiro P Sousa, Pedro Sergio Cunha Costa and Marilena Gondim Rocha

Objectives: The aim of this study is to establish the profile of individuals with suspected white coat hypertension (WCH) submitted to ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM), assessing gender, age and pressure behavior during monitoring.

Material and method: Between May 2007 and May 2014, a total of 14216 ABPM tests were performed in our department. Of this total, the indication for evaluation of suspected white coat hypertension occurred in 262 tests, which constitute the study sample. The oscillometric method with Dyna-MAPA equipment was used in the study. We have used in statistics: chi-square test of equal proportions and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Results: The sample consists of 262 patients, 121 (46.2%) men and 141 (53.8%) women. The mean age of male patients was 41.9 years and of females, 52.5 years. The largest group of patients was the one with abnormal results (113 patients, 43.2%). For patients with abnormal report, the proportion of men is significantly higher than that of women. For patients with normal reports, the proportion of women is significantly higher than men. There is no difference in proportion among genders in the group of patients with borderline report. The mean age of the patients classified as normal (49.9) or borderline (49.6) is significantly older than that of patients diagnosed as abnormal (44.7).

Conclusions: 1) Most patients with suspected WCH actually had persistent hypertension at the ABPM; 2) A little over a third of patients with suspected WCH had the diagnosis confirmed by ABPM; 3) The standard patient with WCH in our sample was female and mean age of 50 years.