American Journal of Hypertension 1 Original article

Ambulatory blood pressure monitors (ABPMs) record mean blood pressure (BP) and BP variability. Current UK guidelines recommend routine use of ABPM in the diagno-sis of hypertension.1,2 Mean ambulatory BP is a well-recog-nized predictor of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.3–8 More recently it has been recognized that ambulatory BP variability (ABPV) also carries important prognostic infor-mation independent of mean BP. Increased ABPV is associ-ated with: carotid artery damage, progression of small vessel disease, cognitive decline, left ventricular hypertrophy, increased cardiovascular events, and increased all-cause mortality.9–17 It is now widely accepted that mean systolic BP increases with age. However few studies have examined how ABPV changes as people get older. A small number of cross