Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Home versus clinic blood pressure readings in dogs and cats
By Koo, Siu To & Carr, Anthony P·Published in Canadian journal of veterinary research = Revue canadienne de recherche veterinaire·2022·Western College of Veterinary Medicine, Canada·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Comparison of home blood pressure and office blood pressure measurement in dogs and cats.
Plain-English summary
A study found that blood pressure readings for dogs and cats taken at home were significantly lower than those measured at the vet's office. In fact, the average difference was about 28 mmHg higher in the clinic, likely due to stress from being at the vet, known as white-coat effect. This was seen in 41% of the pets studied. If you're concerned about your pet's blood pressure, it might be helpful to take readings at home to get a better understanding of their normal levels.
People also search for: dog blood pressure home measurement · cat blood pressure vet visit stress · white-coat hypertension in pets
Abstract
The objectives of this study were to retrospectively compare blood pressure measurements obtained in clinic with those obtained at home from cats and dogs seen at our hospital and to investigate the potential for white-coat effect (WCE) and white-coat hypertension (WCH) in this population of 10 cats and 7 dogs. Medical records from Western College of Veterinary Medicine were searched to identify patients with paired home and in-clinic blood pressure measurements taken within 14 d. The results were compared with matched-pair analysis to determine the agreement and bias. Significantly higher systolic and diastolic blood pressures were measured in the clinic compared with those from home measurements. A mean difference of +27.7 mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 17.1 to 38.3 mmHg,< 0.001] and +12.9 mmHg (95% CI: 6.4 to 19.5 mmHg,= 0.0007) was found for systolic and diastolic pressure, respectively. The prevalence of WCH in this population was 41%. A total of 39% of home blood pressure measurements by owners were free of artefacts as evaluated by waveforms on high-definition oscillometry (HDO) devices. The results of this study showed that blood pressure measurements taken at home and at a clinic varied significantly, which was attributed to a high prevalence of white-coat effect and white-coat hypertension in this clinical population.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35794970/