Blood Pressure Measurement Device, Number and Timing of Visits, and Intra-Individual Visit-to-Visit Variability of Blood Pressure

Abstract

Visit-to-visit variability (VVV) of blood pressure is associated with cardiovascular disease. The authors examined the effects of visit number and timing and automated or manual measurement device on VVV in the placebo arm of the Trial of Preventing Hypertension (TROPHY) (N=225) and simulations. VVV was assessed using intra-individual standard deviation (SD), range, maximum, coefficient of variation, successive variation, and average real variability of systolic blood pressure. VVV increased with number of visits used to calculate it in the TROPHY population (P for trend