24-HOUR AMBULATORY BLOOD-PRESSURE MONITORING IN ELDERLY NORMOTENSIVE INDIVIDUALS AND ITS REPRODUCIBILITY AFTER ONE-YEAR

To study ambulatory brood pressure (ABP) and its reproducibility in he althy normotensive elderly subjects, 34 individuals were randomly sele cted. Their ages were 65 years (n = 10), 70 years (n = 10), 75 years ( n = 8) and 80 years (n = 6). Spacelabs 90207 system was used and one i nitial and a follow-up measurement after one year was performed. It wa s found that 24h ABP easily could be recorded in elderly subjects. A m ean of 97% of the measurements were successful and only two of 34 subj ects dropped out because of measurement failures. Nocturnal blood pres sures were lower in all age groups and in both sexes. The standard dev iations of the differences between the baseline and one year measureme nts were for the daytime period 8/4 mmHg and for the nighttime period 12/8 mmHg. In conclusion, ABP is easily accepted as a clinical method in normotensive elderly subjects. In all subjects there is a reduction of the nocturnal blood pressure and the reproducibility of ABP after one year is good.