AMBULATORY BLOOD-PRESSURE MONITORING IN PHYSICIANS WORKING IN A HOSPITAL - IS THERE AN INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF SUBJECTS WITH HIGH WORKPLACE BLOOD PRESSURES

Sixty-two physicians from our hospital who were normotensives, as supp orted by casual blood pressure measurements, underwent 24-h blood pres sure monitoring which included their normal work, home rest and sleep periods. During working hours, 19% of the subjects showed mean diastol ic and/or diastolic plus systolic blood pressures higher than those ad mitted as normal by the WHO for casual measurements for out of work su bjects. Both mean systolic and diastolic blood pressure measurements, during the work at the hospital, were significantly higher in males (P < 0.01 and P < 0.005, respectively) than the mean of the readings obt ained during the 24-h period, but this phenomenon did not occur among the females. Male's mean systolic (129.8 +/- 10.6 vs. 117.1 +/- 9.7 mm Hg, P < 0.0001) and diastolic pressures (83.4 +/- 8 vs. 74.9 +/- 7.3 m mHg, P < 0.001) were significantly higher during the working period in relation to those of the female group. Discussing the influence of th e kind of work on blood pressure, we came to the conclusion of the exi stence in our environment of a group of subjects (generally males), pr esenting high blood pressure values during their working period at the hospital and normal or borderline values during the rest of the day. This should be of interest, since it has been reported that subjects w ith high workplace blood pressure have an increased risk of hypertensi on and target-organ damage.