EDITORIAL

Measuring and defining orthostatic hypotension in the older person Estimates of the prevalence of orthostatic hypotension (OH) have previously found it to be as high as 6 % in the community and 70 % in long-term care facilities [1, 2]. Despite this high prevalence there remain many unanswered questions regarding the diagnosis, treatment and natural history of OH. The 1996 American Autonomic Society and American Academy of Neurology Consensus criteria were a big step forward in stan-dardising the clinical diagnosis and enabling academic progress; defining OH by sphygmomanometric measured drops in sys-tolic blood pressure (SBP) of 20 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of 10 mmHg during active standing or head up tilt [3].Now these consensus criteria have been outgrown in many ways, largely as a result of the widespread use of continu