Measuring the blood pressure.

Measuring the blood pressure is the basis of diagnosis and management of hy pertension. The blood pressure is a variable, the single value of which can not be considered to be representative of a given person. Therefore, differ ent methods of measurement have been developed to take this variability int o account or to limit its repercussions. Of these methods, the authors describe clinical measurement, self measureme nt and ambulatory blood pressure recording with their advantages and disadv antages, their indications and limitations. The type of information obtaine d by each method is different : the methods are not competitive but complem entary. Clinical measurement is the reference but it has its limitations an d causes of error which pose problems of its validity for assessing mean bl ood pressure in some patients. Traditional self measurement and ambulatory blood pressure recording seem to provide a more accurate evaluation of the blood pressure and are more closely correlated with target organ damage and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. However, it remains to be determined if the use of these methods in the ass essment of cardiovascular risk and management of hypertensive patients impr ove the long-term cardiovascular prognosis.