Ambulatory blood pressure monitor
Ambulatory blood pressure monitor testing helps your child’s care team track blood pressure changes over 24 hours, so they can better understand readings throughout the day.
Tracking blood pressure changes
The Children’s Heart Center offers ambulatory blood pressure monitors, which are tests that allow physicians to observe your child’s changing blood pressure throughout the day.
Some patients have high blood pressure in the doctors’ office because of anxiety. This test records fluctuations in blood pressure over the course of a day.
A technologist will apply a blood pressure cuff on one of your child’s arms. The cuff, which is attached to a small monitor, will automatically inflate and record blood pressure approximately every hour for a 24-hour time period.
The only limitation on your child's activity, unless instructed otherwise by the physician, is that the monitor cannot get wet. Showers must be avoided, but careful sponge bathing is allowed. When the cuff inflates, your child should relax his or her arm and be as still as possible to ensure an accurate reading.
A technologist will retrieve the information from a computer chip in the monitor box and generate a report for the pediatric cardiologist. You will receive the results from the physician who ordered the test in about one week.
As part of Atlantic Health Children’s Health, physician services are provided through Atlantic Medical Group and are on staff at Goryeb Children’s Hospital.