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Blood Pressure Monitoring

The single greatest cause of preventable death in our community is cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes. Everyone over 40 should know their Blood Pressure and Cholesterol Level, as these are totally reversible factors in these diseases.

A problem with measuring Blood Pressure is that one reading raised does not always imply that the Blood Pressure is up all the time. Traditionally the way to get around this was to take the Blood Pressure on several different occasions, and make a decision to treat on the overall pattern. However, the very fact that a patient has to attend a doctor, who might make them nervous (even the most pleasant ones!) can raise the Blood Pressure and make the readings less reliable. This is the so-called White Coat Hypertension.

A way of getting a much better assessment of what a person's Blood Pressure is, is to do Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring (ABPM). A patient wears a cuff, and carries a small blood pressure monitor, which records the Blood Pressure over 24 hours. This gives an ideal picture on which to judge treatment. ABPM at the Slievemore Clinic is well established, and may be booked by your doctor to help make the appropriate treatment choices for each patient.

Special arrangements are needed, and all blood pressure monitors need to be returned at 9.00 a.m. on the following day.