the Straights Are at It Again Shirt
Are blood pressure measurement mistakes making yous chronically ill?
Past American Center Clan News
It's a familiar scenario: You find yourself at the dr.'south function, sitting on the edge of an test table with your feet dangling inches higher up the floor. The nurse or medical banana who seconds ago instructed you lot to sit now asks yous questions about the reason for your visit – all while taking your blood pressure.
That measurement, notwithstanding, could come up back dangerously high – and apartment wrong.
Together, the dangling feet, the unsupported back, even the chit chat are more than than plenty to throw off a blood pressure level reading and classify a patient as having high blood pressure level when they don't.
And if that measurement was taken with the blood force per unit area cuff on tiptop of a shirt sleeve instead of a blank arm? It could push button a patient's reading high enough to qualify for medication that might not be needed.
Until recently, high blood pressure, or hypertension, was defined by any measurements with 140 or higher as the elevation number, and 90 or greater equally the lesser.
Last Nov, the American Heart Association updated its high blood force per unit area guidelines and established a new threshold for diagnosing high claret pressure at 130/80. That modify of 10 mmHg (millimeters of mercury) was enough to classify almost half of all Americans equally having high blood pressure.
It besides has served as a reminder about the importance of getting blood pressure measured properly.
Yet, for a procedure performed millions of times every day beyond the country, very few medical professionals – even nurses and doctors – nail the routine correctly, said Dr. Michael Rakotz, a family physician and the vice president of wellness outcomes for the American Medical Clan.
An ongoing AMA campaign has tried to raise awareness nearly how to right the virtually common errors people make when measuring claret force per unit area, whether at the doctor's office or at home.
"Every time we go out and conduct blood pressure measurement trainings, people tell us afterward that they've been doing it wrong for years," Rakotz said.
Posters tacked inside test rooms and vital stations are aimed only as much at patients as they are at clinical staff because "one time the patients acquire how their blood pressure should be measured, they aren't going to permit anybody measure it incorrectly again," he said.
When getting claret pressure measured, both feet need to rest on the ground or a stool. The back needs to exist supported, also as the arm, which should be propped at heart level. Many times, these procedures fail to be observed.
Other common mistakes include:
- Failing to remainder earlier a measurement. Sitting quietly for near v minutes tin can help relax the trunk.
- Placing a gage over wear. Depending on the thickness of the sleeve, article of clothing can add up to fifty mmHg to a reading. The blood pressure cuff needs to be placed on a bare arm – so curl upwardly your sleeve or come wearing brusque sleeves.
- Using the wrong sized gage. Squeezing an arm into a cuff that's too small tin add anywhere between 2 mmHg and x mmHg to a measurement.
- Engaging in conversation. Avoid the modest talk. Even agile listening can add x mmHg.
With but ane or two simple errors in measurement techniques, a patient could of a sudden notice himself classified as having high blood pressure, said Dr. Raymond Townsend, a nephrologist.
"Suddenly, they have a disease that they didn't accept yesterday," said Townsend, director of the hypertension program at the Academy of Pennsylvania Hospital. "When yous label someone equally having hypertension, y'all actually have given them a chronic illness label. That can be a downer in our outlook on life so getting it right is important."
Townsend worked with Rakotz on a written report where they implemented a "claret pressure cheque challenge" to nearly 160 medical students during the 2022 AMA almanac coming together.
Just one student performed all eleven measurement elements correctly.
"It didn't affair if you were a guy or a gal, whether you were a showtime-year medical student or fourth-yr, whether you were going into internal medicine or obstetrics. They merely didn't know what they were doing," Townsend said. "Out of 11 possible things to do right, the boilerplate they got was four."
Townsend knows that doctors have a lot of information to balance in their minds when seeing patients.
"Merely of all the things that we exercise in clinical medicine, what is the unmarried well-nigh important divergence we can make to help someone live longer and alive free of target organ impairment? There'southward only ane reply," he said. "Information technology'due south to measure out and treat claret pressure correctly."
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Source: https://www.heart.org/en/news/2018/05/10/are-blood-pressure-measurement-mistakes-making-you-chronically-ill
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