[Measuring arterial pressure].

Abstract

Measuring the blood pressure is the basis of diagnosis and management of hypertension. The blood pressure is a variable, the single value of which cannot be considered to be representative of a given person. Therefore, different methods of measurement have been developed to take this variability into account or to limit its repercussions. Of these methods, the authors describe clinical measurement, self measurement and ambulatory blood pressure recording with their advantages and disadvantages, their indications and limitations. The type of information obtained by each method is different: the methods are not competitive but complementary. Clinical measurement is the reference but it has its limitations and causes of error which pose problems of its validity for assessing mean blood pressure in some patients. Traditional self measurement and ambulatory blood pressure recording seem to provide a more accurate evaluation of the blood pressure and are more closely correlated with target organ damage and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, it remains to be determined if the use of these methods in the assessment of cardiovascular risk and management of hypertensive patients improve the long-term cardiovascular prognosis.