The Effect of Timing of Antihypertensive Medication on Diurnal Fluctuations in Blood Pressure Using a Wearable Sensor With Continuous Monitoring

Elevated blood pressure (i.e., hypertension) is a major risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and all-cause mortality. Medical treatment can significantly improve the prognosis of those with hypertension. It has also been suggested that nighttime medication is more effective in improving mortality and morbidity compared to daytime medication. This hypothesis relates to the fact that lack of a reduction in BP during the night (termed "non-dipping") is associated with a worse prognosis, and therefore nighttime medication can potentially improve the desired diurnal fluctuations in BP and improve health outcomes in those with hypertension to a greater extent than daytime medication. However, whether the timing of drug administration affects the desired diurnal fluctuations in BP remains unknown.

To assess fluctuations in BP throughout the day, and specifically during the night, an ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM) for 24 hours is required. Research suggests that this method allows classification of hypertension and thus more precise prediction of the patient's cardiovascular risk compared to office-based BP monitoring.

To date, clinician's ability to continuously monitor BP throughout the day has been limited, as the mostly commonly used method of Holter monitoring only allows for BP measurement every 30 min and imposes a significant burden on the patient. The latter limitation affects patients' compliance, and thus clinicians' ability to accurately assess daily BP fluctuations (or lack thereof) that present a major health risk factor.

Thus, the main aim of this study is to use a new wearable, cuff-less technology that that allows continuous ambulatory monitoring of BP to assess whether nighttime medication for hypertension improved diurnal fluctuations in BP to a better extent compared to daytime medication.

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