Masked Hypertension

This is a phenomenon throughout the population. “People o no drugs thought to be ‘normotensive’ who have elevated BP outside the office also have additional risk from that out of office BP elevation” says Dr. Raymond Townsend MD, FAHS, professor of medicine and director of the Hypertension Program at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania told Endocrine Today. Townsend reports that one out of four or one in five of the population. Evidently, these rates of HTN are going up due to people moving from overweight or pre-obesity into obesity at an alarming rate.

If unchecked, the masked hypertension are looking at a doubling of cardiovascular (CV) outcomes and increased risk of kidney disease progression. The longer you have high BP, the greater the risk. One group that appears to be especially at risk for morbidity/mortality are the people that have moderate weight gain from early to mid-adulthood. Clinicians should check for sleep apnea, consider stepping up BP medications and consider home BP monitoring when chronic kidney disease is present.

This can be dealt with but it has to be found first. Be your own advocate and consider testing your BP at home, out of the office setting.

Source: Endocrine Today, December 2022, Vol 20, No 12