The Canadian Journal of CME / July 2004 83

pregnancies and are associated with significant maternal and perinatal complications. The blood pressure (BP) levels mea-sured during pregnancy will influence the diagnosis, type of followup, therapeutic approach-es (e.g., rest, work stoppage, hos-pitalization), and time of child-birth. Home blood pressure monitoring For many, home blood pressure monitoring (HBPM) has been used for patients in their fol-lowup and treatment phases. The principle is simple: patients mea-sure their BP repeatedly with a portable manometer at different times throughout the day. It is important to give patients specif-ic instructions on: • the technique, • the BP-measuring timetable, and • the logging of results. In addition, it may prove advent-ageous to give advice on how to respond to a BP reading that is too high or too low and on how to adjust medication accordingly. Table 1 outlines the main advantages HBPM has over BP measured at the doctor's office. Generally speaking, HBPM is considered reliable. HBPM’s principal limitation lies in the inaccuracy of its read-ings (owing either to the manometer or the user). Nevertheless, accuracy can be improved by using devices vali-dated in accordance with the protocols of the British Hypertension Society or the Association for th