About once a week I explain to someone that it will not be possible to measure pressure with a mechanical tonometer. Rather, it will work, but not exactly.
From the tension of the muscles squeezing the tonometer's pear, and joyful excitement in anticipation of the result, blood pressure rises. Americans call it cuff inflation hypertension, that is, hypertension from cuff inflation.
Everything has already been tested a long time ago
This often happens when using mechanical blood pressure monitors or semiautomatic devices, in which you also need to press the pear. This case was checked 30 years ago and it turned out that systolic and diastolic blood pressure increases by about 12 and 9 millimeters of mercury, respectively. This pressure surge can last from 5 to 20 seconds.
Joyful excitement
The funny thing is that even when using a fully automatic blood pressure monitor that pumps and measures itself, people manage to get systolic blood pressure values about 4 - 7 millimeters of mercury higher than should be. They are so worried in anticipation of inflation of the cuff that at the moment the compressor starts, they cannot cope with the excitement.
What to do and who to complain to
Let's start with a mechanical tonometer. If the pressure rises from the pumping of the cuff, but you want to measure it to yourself by all means, then you need inflate the cuff to a pressure 30 millimeters of mercury above the systolic and then very slowly bleed air. Very slowly - this is 2 - 3 millimeters of mercury per second. This time will be enough for the jumped blood pressure to return to normal.
If the nerves cannot withstand the very fact of measuring the pressure, then you need to measure the pressure several times in a row, and the results of the first measurement are simply not taken into account. This approach works not only for automatic but also for mechanical blood pressure monitors.
How do you like this approach? Suitable?
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