RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To communicate our experience with this technique centred in the definition of the patterns and the peculiar characteristics of the rising pattern. METHODS: During a four year period, the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring was obtained in 500 hypertensive patients with difficult to control blood pressure or of recent detection, following the guide of the Cardiorisk project. RESULTS: The most frequent pattern observed was non-dipper (46.6%). The pulse pressures obtained by ambulatory and office blood pressure monitoring kept a correlation that serve as guide to the office blood pressure measurements. The level of control by ambulatory monitoring blood pressure is only discretely superior to the office blood pressure if the cases of white coat and masked hypertension are considered. The rising pattern is associated to a major vascular risk. CONCLUSIONS: An increased vascular risk is noticed in the rising pattern with respect to other patterns. The morphology of different atypical patterns was also presented. The help of the ambulatory blood pressure monitoring along with one taken in the office determined a great aid to interpret the huge variability of the arterial pressure.