Abstract

We sought to investigate the prognosis in subjects with “white-coat” hypertension (WCHT) and “masked” hypertension (MHT), in which blood pressure (BP) is lower in clinical measurements than during ambulatory monitoring. The prognostic significance of WCHT remains controversial, and little is known about MHT. We obtained 24-h ambulatory BP and “casual” BP (i.e., obtained in clinical scenarios) values from 1,332 subjects (872 women, 460 men) ≥40 years old in a representative sample of the general population of a Japanese community. Survival and stroke morbidity were then followed up for a mean duration of 10 years. Composite risk of cardiovascular mortality and stroke morbidity examined using a Cox proportional hazards regression model for subjects with WCHT (casual BP ≥140/90 mm Hg, daytime BP 0.2). Conventional BP measurements may not identify some individuals at high or low risk, but these people may be identifiable by the use of ambulatory BP.