How to Measure Blood Pressure

How To Measure Blood Pressurepressure machine or home blood pressure monitor
Do you know how to measure blood pressure? Morehas taken a lot of stress off of people who are
and more people are becoming interested in therequired to monitor there own blood pressure at
topic.home.
A machine called a sphygmomanometer is used toAn automatic blood pressure monitor does all the
measure blood pressure. The machine has threehard work of blood pressure measurement for you.
parts- the sphygmomanometer, theYou simply wrap the cuff around your arm and pull it
sphygmomanometer cuff and the inflation bulb.tight following the directions to be sure you have it in
To measure a patients blood pressure, the cuff isthe correct location and the tube is on the inside on
wrapped around their upper arm with it laying flat andyour arm.
upward on a table or flat surface; the cuff is securedThen you set the monitor to the correct setting of
in place by a piece of Velcro. The doctor or nurse180/ 140 or 120. Your doctor will tell you which one
then places a stethoscope on the lower part of theto use. Then you hit the button and relax your arm
arm just above the brachial artery. The inflation bulbas the machine does all the work. When it is finished
is then pumped to 180 while the doctor or nurseit will beep and your blood pressure reading will be
uses the stethoscope to listen to the heartbeat. Byready to read and record.
using the pump to inflate the cuff, it cuts of theBlood pressure monitors come in a variety of sizes
blood flow to the artery.and price ranges. If you are on the go a lot, you will
Once the meter reaches 180 the valve on the cuff iswant a smaller one where the monitor box actually
slowly released and the first set of numbers that theattaches to the cuff. These are more expensive but
doctor or nurse counts is the systolic (or topeasier to carry around.
number), the second set of numbers that is heard isA blood pressure machine referred to as an
the diastolic (or bottom number); the process ofambulatory blood pressure monitor is attached to the
taking a blood pressure with the sphygmomanometerpersons'arm and their blood pressure is measured
is done in five phases.over the course of a 24-hour period. The settings
The first phase is where the actual blood pressure isallow the blood pressure to be taking at intervals of
taken as in the steps above.15, 30 and every 60 minutes. It is a great monitor for
The second stage is when the blood that was cutthose who do not need to be hospitalized but do
off for the pressure to be read starts to flow backneed the pressure monitored closely. All of the
through the arteries.information (blood pressures) are stored in a
The third stage is when even more blood returns todatabase in the machine and retrieved by the doctor
the arteries and can be heard.or nurse using a computer program.
Stage 4 the blood can be heard flowing again.Blood pressure measurements are important for your
In the last stage, the flow of blood is normal and thehealth and your doctor will use the readings to plan
process of taking the blood pressure is completed!whether or not you need treatment - and if you do,
The above is a descriptive explanation of how ato work out which treatment to give you.
doctor or nurse does a blood pressure measurement.If you have high blood pressure and don't yet own a
Luckily, there are other methods that are not asblood pressure monitor you should consider buying
complicated. The invention of the automatic bloodone now.