How to prepare your blood pressure diary for the cardiologist

What the cardiologist needs

To assess blood pressure measured at home, the European ESH 2021 guidelines refer to the average of at least 12 readings taken over at least 3 days, usually leaving out the first day. The cardiologist therefore needs all your readings, with date and time, taken with a consistent method.

ESH 2021 prefers monitors that store readings and calculate their average; when the monitor cannot do it, it suggests keeping a logbook.

The week before the visit

• Measure for 7 days, and never fewer than 3 (ESH 2021, ESH 2023), or for the number of days your doctor told you.
• In the morning, before medicines and before eating, and in the evening, with two readings 1 minute apart each time (ESH 2021, ESH 2023).
• Always use the same validated upper-arm monitor and the same method: the guide "How to measure blood pressure at home" describes it step by step.

What to note next to each reading

• Date and time, systolic, diastolic and pulse, as the monitor shows them.
• The arm used and the position, for example sitting.
• The context: rested for 5 minutes, after coffee, a moment of stress, before or after your medicine.
• An irregular heartbeat, if the monitor flags it: note it without drawing conclusions.
• The medicines taken and those forgotten, and any symptoms, with the time.

How to do it with Pediary

In Pediary each measurement is a container of readings: you add the first one, then the others in the same measurement, and the app calculates the average blood pressure over all of them. The time of day is set from the time of the first reading (night 0 to 6, morning 6 to 12, afternoon 12 to 18, evening 18 to 24) and you can change it by hand. Arm, position and monitor stay as they were last time; you pick the context each time.

From the blood pressure diary you choose the period and export the PDF for the cardiologist: morning, evening and period averages, also excluding the first day, the highest and lowest values, the day-by-day chart, all readings with time, arm, position and context, the medicines for the period with missed doses and, if you want, symptoms, visits from the last 12 months and your notes for the cardiologist. You can also export a CSV to open in a spreadsheet.

On the day of the visit

• Bring the PDF, printed or on your phone, and the list of medicines you take with their doses.
• Write down the questions you want to ask beforehand, so you do not forget them at the clinic.
• If something during the week was different from usual, for example a sleepless night or a missed medicine, say so: context helps read the numbers.

What not to do

Do not throw away readings you do not like and do not repeat the measurement until the number "looks right": the cardiologist needs all of them. Do not change your treatment based on what you read at home. The World Health Organization points out that an evaluation by a health professional is important: for any doubt, talk to your doctor.

Sources

Every numerical indication in this guide comes from these sources, consulted in September 2026.

1. ESH 2021, practice guidelines for office and out-of-office blood pressure measurement (J Hypertens 2021;39:1293-1302)
2. ESH 2023, European guidelines for the management of arterial hypertension (J Hypertens 2023;41:1874-2071)
3. World Health Organization, Hypertension (fact sheet updated 25 September 2025)

Download Pediary for free

The health diary for you and your family, with the blood pressure diary from version 3.1.