Physician Acquired Blood Pressure Measurement is Higher than Nurse Acquired BP

There are several different types of mild and/or episodic hypertension that ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) can help a physician diagnose. However, the summary data that ABPM provides, the average daytime or 24-hour blood pressure as two examples, provides significantly different information than the one or two measurements taken in a clinic. Although this difference is one of the reasons that ABPM correlates better to cardiovascular outcomes than in-clinic BP, making it the gold standard for BP measurement, there are few detailed guidelines on the targets or thresholds for ABP like there are for in-clinic BPs like the popular 120/80 as a threshold for normal BP and 140/90 for hypertensive.*

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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.

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Blood Pressure Fluctuations: 'Warning Sign for Stroke'

Last week we addressed a report from the Institute of Medicine indicating that high blood pressure is not on the minds of the general public. However, in the most recent issue of the Lancet, a different view of hypertension was posted: what if your physician is looking at the wrong BP values? What if there is more to clinic blood pressure, or the measurement that your physician takes, than the average value?

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Back to the Basics of Blood Pressure

Almost everyone knows that blood pressure is one of the most important measurements in medicine. Every time a patient visits a physician's office or hospital, one of the first measurements taken is their blood pressure. Since blood pressure plays such a vital role in monitoring a person's overall health, I thought I would write about the basics of blood pressure and some of the terminology used in blood pressure measurement.

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Life's Simple 7 Heart Health Factors

Blood Pressure is one of the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 factors included in the My Life Check to help Americans assess and improve their heart health. Small changes in any of the 7 categories lead to improved heart health. Check out your Heart Score today!

February 5th is National Wear Red Day

Wear Red Day was created to raise awareness about the risk factors of heart disease, specifically for women. It is the #1 killer of American women, even surpassing deaths resulting from all forms of cancer. The Heart Truth provides tools for women to prevent and control risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity. Available materials to help women reduce their risk of heart disease include an Action plan, Heart Health Handbook, and a Heart Health Cookbook. To find out more about National Wear Red Day, check out The Heart Truth website and program overview.

®National Wear Red Day is a registered trademark of HHS and AHA. 

10 Factors That Can Affect Blood Pressure Readings

Have you ever visited the doctor's office and discovered your blood pressure was higher than you expected? Most people do not realize their blood pressure is constantly changing minute by minute in response to mood, activity, body position, etc. In fact, simple changes can cause blood pressure to fluctuate between 5 and 40 mmHg. Here is a list of 10 factors that can temporarily cause significant deviations in your blood pressure measurements.

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Device enables world's first voluntary gorilla blood pressure reading

As a leading manufacturer of automated blood pressure monitoring technology, we've seen some pretty interesting technological advances in our 25 plus years, but the work that Biomedical Engineering students from Emory University did for their senior project has to be one of the most impressive accomplishments we've seen in a while. 

Zoo Atlanta recently became the first zoological institution in the world to obtain voluntary blood pressure readings from a gorilla. This groundbreaking stride was made possible by the Gorilla Tough Cuff, a blood pressure reading system devised through partnership with the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University.

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'Tis the Season for High Blood Pressure

The hustle and bustle of the holiday season can be a stressful time of year for most.  Overindulgence at holiday parties, long shopping lists and added financial burden is enough to raise anyone's blood pressure and put them at risk for a cardiovasular event.  The gift of health is the most important thing we can give ourselves this holiday season.  Read this article to see what you can do to promote a heart healthy holiday!  

From all of us at SunTech Medical, we wish you a healthy holiday season and a happy new year!