Relationship Between Level of Blood Pressure Measured Casually and by Portable Recorders and Severity of Complications in Essential Hypertension

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Abstract
The relationship of the degree of severity of cardiovascular complications, graded according to ocular funduscopic, electrocardiographic, and roentgenographic (heart size) criteria, to arterial blood pressure levels was investigated in 124 patients with essential hypertension. Blood pressure levels were determined both by casual measurements and by means of a portable semiautomatic blood pressure recorder worn during the patient''s normal daily activities. A significant correlation was found between the overall severity of hypertensive complications and the average casual systolic and dias-tolic blood pressures; the correlation with the corresponding pressure readings obtained with the portable recorder, however, was significantly higher. The relationship between the average pressures obtained with the portable recorder and the severity of complications was quantitative; the higher the mean systolic and diastolic pressures, the greater the average degree of severity. No correlation was found between severity of complications and variability of the systolic or diastolic pressures recorded by the patient or between severity and duration of hypertension as best determined from the medical history. A low but significant correlation was found with age. The results of the study support the view that the severity of cardiovascular complications in essential hypertension is mainly determined by the average level of the arterial blood pressure.