V - How
to measure high blood pressure?
Principles
5.1 - The
most reliable method: to place a probe measuring the pressure directly
in the artery
5.2 - The most
useful method: The measure of the blood pressure using a sphygmomanometer
with a cuff
Measurement
of the blood pressure
5.3 - At rest
at the doctors
5.4 - At rest
at home, using a self-measurement device
5.5 - During
a physical exercise
5.6 - Measurement
by an ambulatory monitoring of the blood pressure during 24 hours
Description of the device
5.7 - The cuff
5.8 - Method
for the measurement of the blood pressure
5.9 - The sphygmomanometer
5.9 -
The sphygmomanometer
The pressure existing in
the cuff will be transmitted by hollow pipes to a system which will
give a legible blood pressure value. Several devices are currently
available: those that use a mercury column, and those that use a
metal membrane.
- Sphygmomanometer with
mercury
 It
consists in a mercury column, which can allow the reading of the
blood pressure.
This technique is the oldest and it is for this reason that the blood pressure
unit is the millimetre of mercury. Up to now, this technique has been the basic
method for measuring blood pressure. The results obtained are highly reliable
in a long run, but the use of mercury will soon be prohibited within the European
Community. It will thus be necessary to think of solutions for replacement,
and to change the unit of measurement of the blood pressure (millimetre of
mercury replaced by the kilopascal?).
This type of sphygmomanometer
is exclusively reserved for the measurement of the blood pressure
at the level of the arm.
- aneroid sphygmomanometer
This type of device does
not contain mercury. A metal membrane located in a case translates
the blood pressure transmitted by the cuff. This type of device is
very practical to use and is generally reliable if it is regularly
controlled.
This method constitutes
a good alternative to the sphygmomanometer with mercury, which will
be abandoned in a few years.
This device can produce
blood pressure at the level of the arm, but also at the level of
the wrist or the finger.
| File
last reviewed on : 18 dec 2011 |
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