Within-Home Blood Pressure Variability on a Single Occasion Has Clinical Significance

There is growing evidence that diversely defined blood pressure variability (BPV) is an independent predictor of hypertensive target organ damage (TOD) and cardiovascular events. Several mechanisms have been speculated to underlie episodes of increased BPV, including the impairment of autonomic or hormonal regulation, renal dysfunction, and increased arterial stiffness. Within-home BPV, defined as differences in BP values obtained on a single occasion at home, could have prognostic significance for hypertensive TOD. It is typically thought that BP values are decreased with repeated measurements on a single occasion at home, but in the present subanalysis of 4,149 J-HOP (Japan Morning Surge-Home Blood Pressure) study patients, approximately 20% of the patients' home BP values were increased or unchanged by repeated measurements on a single occasion. In addition, those patients were likely to have hypertensive TOD. Thus, home BP measurement should be taken twice or more to detect the increase trend in home BP, which has been defined as within-home BPV.