An Acute Hypertensive Episode Triggered by an Ambulatory Blood-Pressure-Monitoring Device
N Engl J Med 2004 350: 2315-2316
"Hilarious Journal Articles" is an occasional series. Submissions are welcome and will be acknowledged.A 46-year-old man was referred to the hypertension clinic in Ashkelon, Israel, for ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring to rule out white-coat hypertension, because his blood pressure was high when measured in the office but normal when measured at home. His medical history was unremarkable. Shortly after the monitoring device was attached to the patient, he was arrested by the police. The wires penetrating through his shirt had caused bystanders to suspect that he was a terrorist wired to a bomb (the blood-pressure-monitoring device had a separate battery pack, partly obscured by his jacket). Police officers immediately handcuffed him, as is standard procedure for handling an armed terrorist, and released him after a brief interrogation.
While the man was being arrested, the peak blood pressure (at 9:12 a.m.) rose to 161/101 mm Hg (Figure 1). The elevated systolic blood pressure persisted for more than 90 minutes, and the elevated diastolic blood pressure for more than 45 minutes. Tachycardia, with rates up to 122 beats per minute, persisted for more than four hours. A second hypertensive episode was triggered by another police interview approximately four hours after the initial arrest...
During the subsequent nine months, the patient's blood pressure -- as measured with an ambulatory monitor and at home -- has been normal, with a mean daily blood pressure of 122/81 mm Hg and a mean heart rate of 81 beats per minute. The patient has remained asymptomatic...
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