Influence of Sex on the Accuracy of Oscillometric Blood Pressure Cuffs

I have written before about the difficulties involved in recording valid blood pressure readings. I believe many decision makers have a tendency to take numbers more seriously than they should. “Treating to target” can be seductively easy, but it removes us from looking at patients as unique individuals with different health status and risk.

An article in The Journal of Clinical Hypertension illustrates that numbers are not as accurate as we might think. Oscillometric blood pressure readings can be misleading, particularly in women. According to the study from the University of Washington women’s systolic blood pressures are on average underreported by 10 mm Hg when oscillometric cuffs are used.

Influence of Sex on the Accuracy of Oscillometric-Derived Blood Pressures – Bhatt – 2010 – The Journal of Clinical Hypertension – Wiley Online Library.