Wrist versus Upper Arm Blood Pressure Measurement

Is wrist BP an acceptable way to guide treatment for obese patients?

For over 100 years, upper arm blood pressure (BP) measurement has been the gold standard method to guide treatment decisions. This is the recommended technique by both the American Heart Association (AHA) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH).

For almost nearly as long, it has been well documented that inappropriate sizing of blood pressure cuffs can contribute significantly to errors in blood pressure measurement. Of the most common errors is "undercuffing", which occurs when using cuffs that are too small or too narrow for the patient's arm circumference.

read more

Larger Blood Pressure Cuffs, Please!

If you ask any nurse or doctor about blood pressure (BP) cuffs, one of the most common questions you will receive is "Why can't we get a larger cuff?" With the obesity epidemic increasing globally, the need for larger blood pressure cuffs is becoming more pronounced. The World Health Organization states that "currently more than 1 billion adults are overweight - and at least 300 million of them are clinically obese."1

So why can't BP cuff manufacturers just make larger size cuffs?

read more