Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring: Profiles in Chronic Kidney Disease Patients and Utility in Management

Optimal control of blood pressure (BP) may reduce the risk of progression of CKD. Misclassification of hypertension (HTN) and status of control may result in suboptimal management. Clinic or home BP may overestimate or underestimate status of control compared with ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM), which is considered the gold standard. The latter relates not only to the superiority of ABPM concerning outcome prognosis but also to its ability to accurately diagnose white coat and masked HTN, which is critical in assuring adequate BP control. However, ABPM has not gained widespread use in practice because of limited third-party reimbursement and a paucity of high quality randomized controlled intervention studies evaluating its use. Herein, we review HTN phenotypes that have been identified in patients with CKD, and the potential value of ABPM in this high-risk population.