The diagnosis of hypertension is very simple and is done by measuring blood pressure. Gradually, automatic equipment has started to be recommended, to the detriment of classic aneroids. According to the recommendations of the Brazilian and international guidelines, calibrated and validated equipment must be used and the correct technique applied in all evaluations.
Despite this, the in-office measurement has some problems due to the moment and the environment that we carry out the procedure. If the blood pressure measurement is imprecise, the evaluation for the diagnosis and treatment of hypertension will be useless.

They may occur even if all the technical recommendations for the measurement are applied.
More than one-third of patients have higher blood pressure in the health service than in their daily lives, characterizing the effect of the white coat (hypertension seems more severe than it is) or white coat hypertension, when blood pressure is high only in the office and the patient is not actually hypertensive.
In these cases, misdiagnosis leads to unnecessary or more intense treatment than necessary, leading to costs and severe complications associated with hypotension.
On the other hand, many patients present a masking effect, or also called 'white coat normotension' where the pressure is better in the health setting than in the day-to-day or normal in the office and high outside the office, characterizing masked hypertension.
In this case, the patient is inadequately subtracted or simply untreated, being at high risk for the complications of hypertension. It is critical that the patient receives the pressure medication under control throughout the day.

Healthy living habits should be implemented for all hypertensive patients, avoiding sedentary lifestyle, obesity, excessive salt or alcohol. These measures are also important for the primary prevention of hypertension.
The use of medications is mandatory for a large number of patients. Fortunately today we have availability of an excellent therapeutic arsenal.
Pressure control goals have become more rigid over time and may vary according to individual characteristics. For this it is fundamental that the measurement of the pressure is very precise.