Abstract

In this review, we describe target organ damage and cardiovascular events in masked hypertension. Masked hypertension is associated with more target organ damage, including sustained hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, carotid atherosclerosis, microalbuminuria, silent cerebral infarct, arterial stiffness, central blood pressure and obstructive sleep apnea, than is sustained normotension. Masked hypertension represents a strong predictor of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in diverse patient groups including diabetics and patients with prehypertension. Therefore, clinicians should pursue the diagnosis of masked hypertension in individuals at increased cardiovascular risk and follow patients with prehypertension, encouraging out-of-office monitoring of blood pressure.

Keywords: Masked hypertension, Cardiovascular disease, Clinical implications, Morning hypertension, Hypertension, target organ damage, left ventricular, carotid atherosclerosis, microalbuminuria, silent cerebral infarct, arterial stiffness, hypertrophy, sleep apnea, normotension, cardiovascular morbid-ity, prehypertension, ambu-latory hypertension, coronary, cerebrovascular, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, relative wall thickness, posterior wall, left ven-tricular mass index, echocardio-gram, white coat hypertension, Carotid Intima-Media Thickness, urinary albumin, insulin resistance, Nocturnal Hypertension, nighttime hypertension, deterioration, nondipping, baseline chronic kidney disease, antihyper-tensive treatment, Stress (Worksite) Hypertension, namic responses, mental stress, enlargement of ventricular, left ventricular remodeling, higher aortic pulse wave ve-locities, magnitude of daily urinary protein excretion, apnea-hypopnea, cardiovascular death, cardiovascular risk factors, out-of-office monitoring of blood pressure