We will usually give you a long-term blood pressure monitor to take home with you if you are suspected of having high blood pressure.

However, a measurement over 24 hours can also be used to rule out hypertension. Some people only have high blood pressure values at the doctor’s (“white coat hypertension”), so measurements in the home environment are necessary to confirm or rule out hypertension. Occupational stress or psychological strain can also increase blood pressure.

You have the device put on in the morning after your normal morning routine with showering etc. in the practice. Then the measurement runs for one day and one night. After getting up the next morning, you bring the device back to the practice.

If you get a long-term blood pressure device at home, you should go through a normal day with your job and hobbies (except swimming or showering). In addition, the question about your blood pressure behaviour at night is diagnostically interesting for us, since a drop in blood pressure at night is an important criterion in the assessment. If you have a clearly elevated blood pressure or a so-called sleep apnoea disorder (see there), then the values do not drop relevantly at night or may even be elevated.

As a rule, the evaluation of the long-term blood pressure measurement is computer-based, so that we can discuss the findings with you after a few days. Based on the data, a decision can then be made as to whether therapy is necessary.

You should keep a log of your daily behaviour during the measurements, showing what you did at what time of day, such as exercising, resting, shopping, etc., so that the findings can be better assessed.