How Do You Take A Blood Pressure Measurement?
“Hi I’m Dr. Margaret Collins-Hill with Consults in Hypertension in Wilmington, North Carolina. The question this evening is how to take a blood pressure measurement. If you’ve had your blood pressure measured in a doctor’s office it was probably taken by someone else and they probably held a stethoscope over an artery. This takes a fair amount of training and is almost impossible to do on yourself. Fortunately now we have electronic devices that can be used at home. Most of them can be purchased at drug stores and range anywhere from $30 to $100. In general you want to avoid the wrist and finger machines because they are not quite as accurate and when you have an arm cuff you want to be sure that it fits you properly. A large arm and a small cuff will lead to an elevated blood pressure reading that you don’t want. When you’re taking your blood pressure there are several things you want to be sure of. First of all you don’t want to have smoked for the last 30 minutes. Second of all you
