Twenty-four hour blood pressure monitoring in the Syst-Eur trial.

This article describes the objectives and protocol of a study on ambulatory blood pressure in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension. This study constitutes an optional side-project to the Syst-Eur trial. The multicentre Syst-Eur trial investigates whether antihypertensive treatment of elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension will influence the incidence of stroke. Secondary endpoints include cardiovascular events, such as myocardial infarction. The main objective of the side-project is to investigate whether ambulatory blood pressure monitoring will improve the prediction of cardiovascular complications based on blood pressure measurement in the clinic. The side-project also provides the opportunity to evaluate the diurnal profile of blood pressure in elderly patients with isolated systolic hypertension randomized to placebo or active antihypertensive treatment.