Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Simplifying Blood Pressure Measurements In Clinical Settings, Uwe Reischl, Conrad Colby

Public Health and Population Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Upper arm sphygmomanometry is the most commonly used method to measure blood pressure in adults. However, variations in upper arm circumference and use of different cuff-sizes results in different pressure readings. When using the same cuff size, pressure readings will be higher for larger arm circumferences and lower for smaller arm circumferences. The objective of this study was to identify an adjustment factor that will allow pressure readings obtained for any combination of arm circumference and cuff size to be compared.

Methods: To investigate the relationship between arm circumferences, cuff size and pressure readings, experiments were conducted using laboratory …