Blood pressure telemonitoring and remote counseling of hypertensive patients: pros and cons

Abstract

Home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) is strongly recommended by current guidelines as an effective out-of-office diagnostic and monitoring tool in patients with hypertension (HTN). However, there are personal, cultural, logistic difficulties owing to low effectiveness of HBPM. These put HBPM at a disadvantage in routine clinical practice. As such, telehealth solutions are of special interest nowadays, particularly blood pressure telemonitoring (BPTM) with or without remote counseling. BPTM might become something of digital assistant in the long-term patients’ follow-up and it fits well into the practice of continuity of medical care. The purpose of this review is to highlight not only the benefits of BPTM, but important discrepancies that may impede its widespread implementation in everyday clinical work. Critical comments address the lack of long-term, high-quality studies, absence of hard clinical outcomes and uncertainty on the best technical performance.

New concepts in blood pressure variability

“…Нелинейные показатели оценивались в клинике с использованием безманжеточных методов измерения АД. Эти методы до недавнего времени были не стандартизированы и представляли собой широкую и разнородную группу техник, которые могли иметь известные потенциальные проблемы с точностью, связанные, например, с необходимостью индивидуальной калибровки и стабильностью этих измерений после калибровки [43]. Это ограничение было преодолено недавно принятыми основополагающими стандартами для валидации необходимых устройств 1 [44].…”