Abstract
Changes in blood pressure and pulse rate were measured from 30 minutes before entering the examination room to 10 minutes after entering at 5-minute intervals for the purpose of determining the white-coat effect on blood pressure and pulse rate in aged dental patients at an outpatient clinic.
The results show that the systolic blood pressure and pulse rate significantly increased on entering the examination room (p<0.01). There were marked individual differences in the amounts of increases, and 46.5% were determined to be positive for white-coat effect due to a blood pressure elevation of 10mmHg or more. The frequency of systolic blood pressure elevation by the white-coat effect was higher in patients having a history of hypertension, as compared with those without such a history (p<0.05). The frequency of positive response to the whit-coat effect increased with aging (p<0.01). However, the subjects' sex or the contens of the treatment on that day did not influence the frequency of the occurrence of the white-coat effect. There was no correlation between the number of visits/systolic blood pressure at rest and the amount of blood pressure elevation at the time of entrance to the examination room, whereas the blood pressure at the visit was closely correlated positively with the blood pressure at the entrance (r=0.64; p<0.01), suggesting that the blood pressure would be elevated again by stress in patients with high blood pressure at the visit, even if their blood pressure was lowered by resting.
