What is "white coat hypertension"

alt. (context medicine idiomatic English) elevate blood pressure measured by a medical practitioner and deemed to result from the patient's emotional response to the medical environment. n. (context medicine idiomatic English) elevate blood pressure measured by a medical practitioner and deemed to result from the patient's emotional response to the medical environment.

White coat hypertension, more commonly known as white coat syndrome, is a phenomenon in which patients exhibit a blood pressure level above the normal range, in a clinical setting, though they don't exhibit it in other settings. It is believed that the phenomenon is due to anxiety that those afflicted experience during a clinic visit.

The patient's daytime ambulatory blood pressure is used as a reference as it takes into account ordinary levels of daily stress. Many problems have been incurred in the diagnosis and treatment of white coat hypertension.

The term "masked hypertension" can be used to describe the contrasting phenomenon, where a patient's blood pressure is above the normal range during daily living, although it isn't above the normal range when the patient is in a clinic setting.