Blood pressure may read falsely high if the arm isn’t positioned properly, researchers suggest | New study shows readings were roughly 4 millimeters of mercury higher when participants had their arm at lap- or side-level.
Blood pressure may read falsely high if the arm isn’t positioned properly
8 Comments
I bought a blood pressure monitor due to health anxiety during covid and kept getting high blood pressure readings. Eventually after covid I went to the Dr and had my blood pressure tested and came out normal.. I was pretty confused but when I explained it to the Dr she said its most likely that the cuff was too tight or too small and thats a very common mistake
As someone who has had hypertension since I was fairly young, I’m pretty sure we (i.e. science) were always aware of this, but it wasn’t always practiced by all medical professionals. Sometimes the nurse would specify to keep my arm elevated above my heart, but also sometimes another would just check with it hanging by my side.
Seems like one of those medical facts that people learned but then took for granted. Appreciate the added study, though.
I’d really like to see a way to monitor blood pressure in real time. I know it’s probably not practical, but blood pressure fluctuates SO much due to so many different conditions (posture, activity, positioning, mental state, etc.). I get that high resting blood pressure by itself is a big red flag, but other people whose resting blood pressure is ok might be at risk for similar conditions if they have elevated blood pressure the rest of the day.
I’ve always been confused about blood pressure readings. I’m a healthy young male and recently went to the dentist and got a crazy reading of 153/90 then an hour later went to the doctor(right before having a shot and blood drawn btw) and had a reading of 127/70.
Which is probably why mine reads slightly high. It doesn’t naturally land on the armrest
That’s because of gravity, and it’s location in relation to the heart.
If the BP cuff is below the heart, it’s high via more blood pooling. If you hold you arm in the air, it’ll be lower ect.
Also crossing your legs can increase your reading.
Is 4 mmHg even clinically significant? I bet back to back readings vary by more than that.
This is so true, and at times the effect is even understated. For me, the variance between arm at my side and arm on the counter is about 10 points. For me, that’s the difference between “up the meds” and “we should consider taking you off meds”
The cuff is in the same place, just the arm position is different.
Guess which standard my GP uses?