Automatic Bp Cuffs

[firewatcher]

Gee, any of us could have told them this....and they paid for a study!

The inaccuracy of automatic devices taking postural measurements in the emergency department.

Dind A, Short A, Ekholm J, Holdgate A.

Int J Nurs Pract. 2011 Oct;17(5):525-533. doi: 10.1111/j.1440-172X.2011.01958.x.

Source

The University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Centre for Clinical Governance Research in Health, Australian Institute of Health Innovation, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, and Centre for Health Stewardship, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia Centre for Education and Workforce Development, Sydney South West Area Health Service, Eastern Campus, Liverpool Hospital, Liverpool, New South Wales, Australia Emergency Medicine Research Unit, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

Abstract

Dind A, Short A, Ekholm J, Holdgate A. International Journal of Nursing Practice 2011; 17: 525-533 The inaccuracy of automatic devices taking postural measurements in the emergency department Automatic devices are used to take postural blood pressures in the emergency department despite research proving their inaccuracy in taking single blood pressures. This study assessed the accuracy of an automatic device compared with a manual aneroid reference standard for determining orthostatic hypotension and postural drops at triage. Supine and standing blood pressures were taken with an automatic and a manual device in a sequential and random order, and postural drops were calculated. The manual device indicated 10/150 emergency department patients had orthostatic hypotension (7%) and the automatic device detected this with a sensitivity of 30% and a specificity of 91%. The automatic-manual differences were clinically significant in 13% of systolic drops and 37% of diastolic drops. Findings suggest that automatic devices cannot reliably detect or rule out orthostatic hypotension, indicating that triage nurses need to use manual devices to take accurate postural blood pressures for optimal patient care.

© 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

PMID:21939485

[HopeSprings]

Yeah, I get funky readings sometimes that don't make sense. But then how do we monitor what's going on?

[Chaos]

You're so right! We could have told them this, but why would they listen to us now when they haven't listened for all the years we've been telling them about everything else?

Thanks for posting this though. I think I'll copy it and take it with me to my next cardiology appt. He insists the automatic cuffs are more accurate and suggested that maybe my hearing was bad and that was why I had such different readings between my manual and automatic cuffs. ARGH!!

[MomtoGiuliana]

So interesting--this has been a source of confusion for me. I think these automatic cuffs are off all the way around and it surprises me that some drs rely on them so heavily. While I know I have fluctuating bp, I get consistently high readings on the automatic bp cuff at my general practitioners office (150s/85). This past spring she was concerned I have high bp b/c the readings have been consistently around this over the past several years--although of course at times I have gone in with infection, headache, etc. Well, when I go to my cardiologist annually he says consistently (from manual readings) that my bp is around 105/65 - 110/70. And I would certainly hope that someone at a cardiologists' office can take accurate bp!?