An evaluation of the accuracy of community-based automated blood pressure machines

• Main Authors: Vogel, Elisa, Bowen, Shannon
• Other Authors: Herrier, Richard
• Language: en_US
• Published: The University of Arizona. 2010
• Subjects: Blood Pressure Machine; Community Pharmacy; Accuracy
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10150/623756; http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/623756

Class of 2010 Abstract === OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of automated blood pressure machines located within community-based pharmacies. METHODS: A descriptive, prospective study was performed comparing blood pressure readings obtained from community-based automated blood pressure machines to readings from a mercury manometer for 2 different arm sizes. Mercury manometer readings were obtained using the standardized technique and a standard cuff recommended by the American Heart Association RESULTS: For the subject with the small arm size, the automated blood pressure machines reported systolic pressure readings that were, on average, 16.1 mmHg higher than those obtained manually by the researcher. The mean systolic and pressure readings for the subject with the medium arm size were not significantly different between the automated machine and manual manometer readings, and the diastolic pressure readings were modestly different. CONCLUSIONS: We found that automated blood pressure machines located within a sample of representative community pharmacies were neither accurate nor reliable. The accuracy of the readings are especially inaccurate for subjects with a smaller than average arm size.