Telemonitoring of blood pressure - new quality in diagnostics and treatment of arterial hypertension

Abstract

Polish epidemiological data showing low effectiveness of diagnostics and treatment and high prevalence of hypertension indicates that investigation of new blood pressure treatment and diagnostic methods are needed. It is also of crucial significance to maintain good long-term blood pressure control. Comparison of prognostic value and effectiveness, shows that home blood pressure measurement is better for clinical use than the office one. Rapid development of the telecommunication technology provided ability to practical use of telecommunications systems in which home blood pressure measurements are recorded and send automatically to doctor (using analogue telephone lines or Internet). This method eliminates defects and limitation described for home blood pressure measurement. The telecommunication systems could improve patients compliance. Use of blood pressure telemonitoring at home by hypertensive pregnant women shows the same effects on long-term BP control as among hypertensive pregnant women in hospital. Possibilities mentioned above create a new quality in hypertension diagnosis which could be very useful in short- and long-term treatment monitoring among hypertensive patients. Potential beneficial effects of BP telemonitoring are still investigated. The normal range for that method of BP measuring still needs to be determined. In the presented article authors show current “state of the art” of telemonitoring in arterial hypertension and its potencial use as well as comparison with another techniques and methods used in blood pressure measurements. The TensioCare system of Tensiomed® being used in the authors centre is described in details in the paper.