whitecoat hypertension

Noun

white coat hypertension (uncountable)

1. (idiomatic) Elevated blood pressure measured by a medical practitioner and deemed to result from the patient's emotional response to the medical environment.
   • Patients with white coat hypertension did not show a generalized increase of blood pressure lability, nor an exaggerated pressor response while at work. . . . In such patients, the pressor response may be relatively specific to the physician's office and lead to significant misclassification of...1988 January 8, T. G. Pickering et al., “How common is white coat hypertension?”, in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)

   Synonyms:

   white coat effect, white coat syndrome, white coat high blood pressure