Blood pressure readings should be taken from both arms, experts say
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Why blood pressure readings should be taken from BOTH arms: Experts say current method misses millions with killer condition
- High blood pressure can lead to heart disease, increasing the risk of heart attack
- Taking readings from both arms spots an extra 12 per cent of hypertension cases
- Researchers say reading just one will case ‘under diagnosis and treatment’
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Blood pressure readings should be taken from both arms instead of one, scientists say.
Millions of cases of hypertension could be being missed by how doctors currently test for it, experts fear.
High blood pressure can cause thickening of the left ventricle, leading to heart disease — which kills up to 64,000 Brits a year.
A study of more than 50,000 adults analysed the difference between taking blood pressure measurements from two arms compared to just one.
When readings from both arms were taken, an extra 12 per cent of patients with high blood pressure were caught.
Blood pressure readings should be taken from both arms instead of one, scientists say
Lead researcher Dr Christopher Clark, a medic at the University of Exeter in Devon, said: ‘High blood pressure is a global issue and poor management can be fatal.
‘Failure to measure both arms and use the higher reading will not only result in under diagnosis and treatment of high blood pressure but also underestimation of risks for millions of people worldwide.
‘It’s impossible to predict the best arm as some people have a higher reading in their left arm compared to right and equal numbers have the opposite.
‘Therefore, it’s important to check both arms.’
He added: ‘Detecting high blood pressure correctly is a vital step towards giving the right treatment to the right people.’
The study, published in the medical journal Hypertension, analysed data from 53,172 participants.
All the volunteers had blood pressure readings taken from their left and right arm, as opposed to just one.
Blood pressure describes the strength with which your blood pushes on the sides of your arteries, and is measured in millimetres of mercury (or mmHg).
Systolic (the top number) reflects the heart’s force when it pumps out blood through the body. Meanwhile, diastolic (the bottom) measures pressure when the heart rests between beats.
If either figure is too high, this can place a strain on the arteries and major organs.
But doctors are more interested in the systolic number because it indicates whether a patient has hypertension, giving a better idea of their risk of heart attack or stroke.
Dr Clark and colleagues discovered there was an average difference of 6.6mmHg in systolic pressure between arms.
When both readings were taken into account, nearly 6,500 participants were moved into the hypertension category — above 140mmHg.
Small differences in blood pressure between arms is a regular occurrence, but differences of 10mmHg or more can indicate blocked arteries in the arms or diabetes.
Although International guidelines advise checking blood pressure in both arms, the practice is currently not widely adopted in clinics.
Only around half of doctors take readings from both arms, usually because of time restraints in busy clinics or hospitals.