Resistant hypertension may be 'white coat' phenomenon

More than one third of patients thought to have resistant hypertension had white-coat hypertension during 24-hour ambulatory monitoring, according to research from the University of Barcelona in Spain. In their study, 68,045 patients with hypertension (blood pressure >140/90 mm Hg) from the Spanish Ambulatory Blood Pressure registry were assessed. Thirty-seven percent of 8,295 patients thought to have resistant hypertension had white-coat hypertension after undergoing 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring.
     Those with true resistant hypertension were slightly younger, were more likely male, had a longer duration of hypertension, and a worse cardiovascular risk profile. They were also more likely to smoke, have diabetes, have left ventricular hypertrophy, and a history of cardiovascular disease. The truly resistant group was more likely to have blood pressures that abnormally rose during sleep.