- The appropriately sized cuff should be applied to the nondominant arm unless the SBP difference between arms is > 10 mm Hg, in which case the arm with the highest value obtained should be used
- The device should be set to record for a duration of at least 24 hours with the measurement frequency set at 20 to 30-minute intervals during the day and 30-60 minutes at night
- A patient-reported diary to define daytime (awake), nighttime (sleep), activities, symptoms, and medication administration is useful for study interpretation
- Daytime and nighttime should preferentially be defined using the patient’s diary. Alternatively, predefined thresholds can be used (e.g., 0800-2200 hours for awake and 2200-0800 hours for nighttime)
- The ambulatory BP monitoring report should include all of the individual BP readings (numerically and graphically), the percentage of successful readings, the averages for each time frame (daytime, nighttime, 24 hours) and the “dipping” percentage (the percentage the average BP changed from daytime to nighttime)
- Criteria for a successful ambulatory BP monitoring study are:
- At least 70% of the readings are successful, and
- At least 20 daytime readings and 7 nighttime readings are successful
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