Too Round for the Blood Pressure Machine

Saezimmerman

I sat down to take my BP at the health services office where I work. They have one of the machines like you see at malls with the chair and red and green button. I noticed that the cup seemed snug when it tightened down all the way but I let it run. To my shock: My BP was 142/88.

When I give blood, my BP runs 115/75 or (if I'm nervous about the needle) 120/80. Even when my husband was getting stitches at the hospital, my BP was only 135/83 and that's the highest I had ever seen it! (Why was I getting my BP taken while my husband was getting stitches? He MADE me keep my doctor's appointment that morning!)

I would chalk this up to a bad reading on a machine, but I have a family history of blood pressure problems. So my question is this: Could this reading have been erroneously high because my arm was too big for the cuff?

havingitall

Yes it could. They make a bigger cuff that can be switched out in order to get a more accurate reading