The medical dictionary defines white coat high blood pressure or white coat hypertension as an increase in blood pressure during a visit to the doctor's office and normal blood pressure at other times.

For some people, simply being in a medical setting or having their blood pressure measured by a doctor causes their blood pressure to rise. The more comfortable and relaxed a person is with the clinical setting, the more likely the blood pressure readings in the office will be close to the blood pressure readings seen at home - although this is not always the case and is one reason why so many people are choosing to invest in a good quality home blood pressure monitor.

Experts disagree as to what levels of 24-hour blood pressure should be used to define white coat hypertension but almost everyone accepts that high blood pressure in the clinic should be defined by a cutoff point of 140/90 mm Hg.

White coat high blood pressure is relatively common.

If a doctor suspects that their patient is prone to white coat high blood pressure then they need to arrange readings away from the clinic.
Again - the simplest way to do this is for the patient to buy a home blood pressure monitor.

Some doctors will also arrange for you to have a 24-hour blood pressure recording using ambulatory monitoring, although the finding of persistently normal blood pressure at home as measured by the patient or family member certainly supports the diagnosis.

Blood pressure monitoring at home is simple and easy.

Keeping an accurate log or journal of the readings away from the clinic is an excellent way to help a physician either confirm or dispel whether or not a patient has white coat hypertension.

There are many reasons to identify white coat hypertension and to differentiate those patients whose blood pressures are only elevated in the doctor's office and are normal at all other times.

The most critical reason is to prevent unnecessary treatment - if high blood pressure medication is prescribed to a person who only has elevated blood pressure in the clinic, then the treatment may cause low blood pressure at all other times, which may result in fatigue, light headedness and other side effects.