24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is the gold standard investigation to determine whether or not a patient truly has hypertension, how serious it is and also how good control of blood pressure is in treated individuals. It is unquestionably the single most reliable guide to prognosis that is easily available and is a non-invasive test which is easy to organise and perform without causing inconvenience to patients.
Prof Lobo undertakes ABPM on nearly all patients at some stage to assist in the diagnosis and management of their circulatory problems. This is done using state of the art equipment from Spacelabs which is compact, near silent and provides a wealth of BP data in a single study which can take place from 24 hrs up to 1 week of continuous ABPM which helps to direct the best treatment of each patient.
Novel technology for ABPM
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Prof Lobo use the HealthStats BPro device for cuffless BP monitoring. This small wristwatch-like device is much more comfortable to wear than a standard BP cuff and monitor and does not disturb sleep. Patients report that they are not even aware that they are wearing it.
Link to information about BPro: www.healthstats.com/index3.php?page=product_bppro_intro
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Prof Lobo uses the Spacelabs Sentinel system which currently the only ABPM technology that permits up to 1 week of continuous ABPM providing a wealth of information and permitting patients to add ad hoc BP measurements in addition to the programme measurements which are every half hour during the waking hours and every hour overnight.