The effect of hospitalisation on ambulatory blood pressure in pregnancy

Abstract

Methods. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was performed on 40 women (20 hypertensive, 20 normotensive) on a hospitalised and non-hospitalised day. Mean blood pressure differences Results. Mean heart rate was higher at home (1.79, p = 0.04) than in hospital, but there were no significant differences in mean systolic (1.30 mmHg, p = 0.06), diastolic (0.78 mmHg, p = 0.21) or mean arterial blood pressure (0.81 mmHg, p = 0.19) between the hospitalised and non hospitalised day for the group overall. Nevertheless, the range of individual responses was wide (-8.5 mmHg to 15.4 mmHg mean arterial blood pressure). Hypertensive women receiving antihypertensive therapy had significan..