White Coat Hypertension

Medical issues, doctors, dentists, opticians and hospitals in Hua Hin and Thailand.
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caller
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by caller »

I'm a fellow sufferer too. Years ago, my GP told me to buy my own tester to use. When I moved and explained the problem to my new GP, he had a trick of getting me relaxed then quickly, and unannounced, checked my BP. It was always okay.

A few years back, I had to be checked to see if I was okay for day surgery, I got really stressed waiting for the check up and by the time I went in my BP was seriously high. I explained the situation and was told me to wait while she saw the next patient, then tested me again and it was normal. That's another trait with me, when I get the stressed up test out of the way, I'm okay!
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by hhfarang »

I've had the white coat condition since I was a teenager, but whereas it checks high in the office it's still high, but not a much at home so I still take medication. I've found with a home machine that if I take it 3 times with a minute in between systolic drops from the 140s-150s to the 120s-130s. I told the doc that and he said that was not uncommon and that I should believe the lowest reading as just strapping the machine on at home was initially raising my pressure....
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by Ratsima »

I've noticed the same thing when taking my BP at home. The first time is always somewhat higher than the second. Now I do three separated by a few minutes and record the lowest one.
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by PeteC »

Coincidentally The Guardian is running a small article about this:

http://www.theguardian.com/society/shor ... ome-doctor
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by Ratsima »

The calculator for the algorithm referred to in the article is here:

PROOF-BP - PRedicting Out of OFfice Blood Pressure in the clinic
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by chaspul »

Was advised by Doc that the machines are highly battery dependent, which has proven true with our machine which gives wide ranging readings between old and new batteries.
Now have a draw half full of half drained AA batteries, still good for the wireless mouse.
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by aragon »

I also have this issue. I have been checking my BP at home for years, initially I had one of the cuff type machines, however my doctor told me these were not as accurate as the upper arm type, so I switched a few years ago. I check my BP every morning after I have showered and record all readings on an excel spreadsheet, I was doing it twice/day but that seemed a bit excessive.
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by Ratsima »

I'm sure no one is really interested, but just in case….

Here are the formulae that they use to calculate what they call the "out-of-office" expected BPs:

Code: Select all

//Calculate predicted out-of-office BPs
		spobp = sbp1 + 33.57419+(age*0.6269306)+(sex*-3.598565)+(sbp1*-0.036267)+((sbp3-sbp1)*0.3617946)+((weight/(height*height))*-0.2093273)+(timehyp*0.175593)+(diaghyp*-5.069816)+(antihyp*6.942526)+((sbp1-dbp1)*-0.6181946)+((age*sbp1)*-0.0077222)+((age*(sbp1-dbp1))*0.009603)+((sex*(weight/(height*height)))*0.2976424)+((sex*timehyp)*-0.2587568)+((sex*antihyp)*-14.73537)+((sex*diaghyp)*13.3899);
		dpobp = dbp1 + 59.34239 + (age*-0.3340627) + (sex*3.328766) + (dbp1*-0.4658008) + ((dbp3-dbp1)*-0.4040305) + ((weight/(height*height))*-0.6620654) + (diaghyp*-0.0296759) + (antihyp*10.45892) + (histcvd*-11.07324) + ((sbp1-dbp1)*-0.060376) + ((age*(dbp3-dbp1))*0.0118679) + ((age*(weight/(height*height)))*0.0097736) + ((age*histcvd)*0.1766609) + ((age*antihyp)*-0.133922) + ((sex*antihyp)*-7.997599) + ((sex*diaghyp)*4.628107);
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Re: White Coat Hypertension

Post by NOKYAI »

People like to take a manual BP, not just for accuracy, they can hear many diagnostic features of the hearts rhythm.
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