How to Measure Blood Pressure Using a Sphygmomanometer

The human heart is an incredible pump. It can keep pumping blood for years without relaxing at all. Now, just as we have pipes conveying water from a water pump, there are veins and arteries carrying blood from the heart to the other body parts.

The rate at which the heart pumps blood is termed the blood pressure. The blood pressure is the force exerted by the blood on the wall of arteries. Arterial blood pressure is documented using two numbers, systolic pressure, and diastolic pressure. The systolic records the pressure when the heart pumps out while the diastolic records the pressure when the heart relaxes.

This rate is necessary because it is suggestive of many clinical conditions in the body. To accurately establish the blood pressure at any time, the sphygmomanometer is the instrument used in arriving at this value.

Perhaps you want a “do-it-yourself” tutorial on how to measure blood pressure with the best aneroid sphygmomanometer; this is a guide for you. Before we go into the procedures involved in regulating the blood pressure, let’s quickly run through the basic types of sphygmomanometers we have in the market.

The very first one is the digital sphygmomanometer which comprises of a cuff that can be pumped and a digital screen. While selecting the screen for your blood pressure, ensure you’re using the right inflatable cuff size by checking the arm circumference range on the product box. A type of the arm blood level cuff is a digital arm monitor.

This monitors suits many body types as the radius of the wrist is most times not significantly affected by how big one’s body is. Whichever one you use, the majority of the digital blood pressure monitors are simple to use and can work fine with just a tap of a button to determine your blood pressure. The aneroid sphygmomanometer comprises of a cuff that can be pumped and a rising thread. Due to the technicalities involved in taking blood pressure with an aneroid sphygmomanometer, it is advisable to be used only by medical personnel or persons who have undergone significant training in reading blood pressure.

Now, to the steps required for measuring blood pressure using any of the sphygmomanometers discussed.

STEP 1: SELECT THE APPROPRIATE EQUIPMENT

You’ll most likely need a good stethoscope, a rightly-sized blood pressure cuff and then gauging equipment say an aneroid or mercury column sphygmomanometer. So you’ll get these things set.

STEP 2: SET THE USER

Ensure that the person is not nervous by giving some minutes of rest before taking the first reading. The person can sit upright, and the upper arm is set in a manner that it is at the same level with the heart and the feet placed on the floor. Additional clothing that can disrupt the blood pressure cuff or shunt arterial blood flow should be removed. Ensure that the person is not talking while you’re taking the reading.

STEP 3: SELECT THE APPROPRIATE BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF SIZE

Most of the mistakes recorded in BP measurement arise from the wrong selection of the cuff size. Fold the cuff around the person’s arm and with the index line, check if the person’s arm circumference is under the auspices of the range area.

STEP 4: SET THE BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF ON THE PERSON’S ARM

Probe and determine the brachial vessel and set the blood pressure cuff such that the arterial marker is directed to the brachial artery. Fold the BP cuff loosely on the arm, but firmly to prevent unwrapping it.

STEP 5: PLACE THE STETHOSCOPE

Locate the arm’s crease on that arm you set the cuff of the sphygmomanometer to get the most palpable pulse wave and keep the bell of the stethoscope on the artery at this point.

STEP 6: PUMP THE BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF

Start to pump the cuff bulb even as you take note of the pulse waves. You can stop pumping when you no longer hear the blood flow through the arteries again in the stethoscope. The sphygmomanometer ought to be around 35 mmHg beyond the patient’s regular blood pressure reading. If you can’t tell this figure, pump it to 160 to 180 mmHg. You can still raise it if the pulse is still heard at that pressure.

STEP 7: CAREFULLY START TO DEFLATE THE BLOOD PRESSURE CUFF

It is good practice to deflate the cuff at a pressure of say 2 to 3 mmHg per second. Drastic deflation can result in an imprecise measurement or reading from the sphygmomanometer.

STEP 8: TAKE THE SYSTOLIC MEASUREMENT

The first sound you hear from blood flowing through the arteries as you release the cuff is the systolic pressure. It sounds like a rushing noise initially.

STEP 9: TAKE THE DIASTOLIC MEASUREMENT

Keep listening to the blood pressure cuff and note when the pressure reduces, and the sound fizzles away. Record the reading of the gauge when the sound is no longer coming. This will make the diastolic reading.

STEP 10: CHECK AGAIN FOR PRECISION

It is advisable that you take the BP cuff reading on the two arms and determine the average. To measure accurately, you can delay the measurement by an interval of 5 minutes between readings. Generally, blood pressure is usually high in the cool of the morning and get reduced at night. You might need repeated readings if you’re suspecting erroneous readings from the sphygmomanometer. Conclusion

Measuring blood pressure accurately is an essential thing primarily for the physicians. Doing this will require using the best aneroid sphygmomanometer hat can give a precise reading and is easy to operate.