MASked-unconTrolled hypERtension Management Based on Office BP or on Out-of-office (Ambulatory) BP Measurement

MASTER study is a 4-year prospective, randomized, open-label, blinded-endpoint study (PROBE) comparing 2 management strategies 1) office BP as a guide to treatment, or 2) 24-hour ABP as a guide to treatment. Study objectives are to investigate whether a management strategy based on out-of-office BP (Ambulatory BP monitoring) versus a management strategy based on office BP measurements is associated with differences in outcome, including cardiovascular and renal intermediate end points at one year; cardiovascular events at 4 years and changes in a number of blood pressure-related variables throughout the study. Patients will be followed-up during the first year focusing on changes in left ventricular mass index (LVMI, co-primary endpoint) and Urinary albumin excretion (UAE, albumin/creatinine ratio, co-primary end-point), and during the whole 48 month period for both changes in LVMI and UAE and events including all-cause mortality, CV morbidity and mortality, cerebral morbidity and mortality.A total of 1240 subjects will be recruited by 30 centers, taking into account a dropout rate of 15% (620 subjects per randomization arm).