Daily blood pressure Monitoring (SMAD)

Daily blood pressure monitoring, or SMAD for short, is a technique that aims to monitor blood pressure (BP) and heart rate continuously throughout the day. Thus, it is possible to obtain data on the average blood pressure figures per day, their changes, including a sharp decrease or increase.

Daily blood pressure monitoring is indicated for newly diagnosed hypertension of any degree, including those bordering on normal values, with destabilization of already known arterial hypertension requiring correction of treatment, in the presence of a hereditary predisposition. SMAD is also performed if the symptomatic nature of hypertension is suspected, in order to exclude the so-called "white coat hypertension" (when elevated blood pressure values are noted only when measured in a medical facility).

Since arterial hypertension often accompanies other diseases of the cardiovascular system, as well as diseases of the brain of vascular origin and other diseases, SMAD is performed for a thorough examination in such cases. Other indications for daily blood pressure monitoring are constitutional and orthostatic hypotension. SMAD is also performed to assess the adequacy of ongoing drug therapy.

Before starting daily monitoring, a preliminary control measurement of the patient's blood pressure is performed, and the device is programmed.

The cuff of the SMA device is fixed on the passive arm of the subject: that is, for right-handed people it is superimposed on the left arm, for left-handed people, on the contrary, on the right.

Special software for processing the received data is supplied along with the systems for daily blood pressure monitoring. The operation of the integrated program involves the reading and automatic processing of measurement readings, with the possibility of their output in printed form.

First of all, the results of the SMAD are evaluated by calculated averages, including indicators of average systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as average blood pressure in general. Additionally, the heart rate is taken into account. The average values are calculated per day, for the waking period – usually the interval from 7 to 23 hours is taken for it, as well as the sleep period – from 23 to 7 hours. Any drug therapy for hypertension is aimed at changing the average values, they are also indicators of the effectiveness of treatment. At the same time, blood pressure should be normalized both during the day and at night.

In general, SMAD expands the capabilities of the attending physician both in terms of diagnosing hypertension and its effective treatment to achieve targeted results. This technique is the diagnostic basis for the formation of an individual program for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, including acute myocardial infarction and acute cerebrovascular accident.