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Blood pressure

5 replies

Daydreamer1810 · 17/10/2023 10:18

Just been on one of those weight machines at the doctors where they measure bmi/bp/weight etc.. And the bp (which is done through left wrist) took a reading of 190/79 - didnt realise until i got back to my car.
I went to my local pharmacy 10 mins later who did it 3 times & it showed up an average reading of 112/75.. Do i need to notify a doctor or would you just conclude first machine was faulty?
Thanks in advance

OP posts:
Verbena17 · 17/10/2023 10:46

The machine at our surgery is always faulty - once you know this, you can’t ever trust it again.
Yes notify reception that you believe it’s faulty.

user1471505356 · 17/10/2023 11:09

BP goes up under stress called White Coat reaction both readings may be valid.

willingtolearn · 17/10/2023 11:49

A single measurement of blood pressure means very little.

It is actually something that needs to be taken very carefully.

You should have been sitting down, not having eaten or drunk caffeine or having exercised for 30minutes before it. You should be relaxed in a quiet, warm environment with no environmental of physical stressors.

The machine should have been calibrated, the cuff size measured to ensure it fits you arm and it needs to be in the right place.

The arm should be supported at heart height.

It should be taken twice with 5 minutes between each reading.

It should be taken at the same time each day - preferably the morning.

Readings should be compared against similar readings taken with the same equipment in the same conditions.

Safe to say, hardly any BP reading meet these standards - it is more common now for GPs to advise people to take regular readings (twice a day for 2 weeks) at home with the same equipment to improve the standard of measurements before they make decisions about prescribing medications.

Verbena17 · 17/10/2023 11:51

But you’d have thought white coat syndrome would apply (possibly more so) at the pharmacy. Doing it yourself on a machine with no doctor present should in theory be less stressful. But yes, white coat syndrome can defo be a thing but the pharmacist took the average of 3 readings so whether the other one was accurate at that time, the pharmacy took a very normal reading afterwards, so that’s good.

coloursquare · 17/10/2023 13:03

You can have a spike. I did a 24 hour test and had a couple of high readings across the time period, but the average was ok

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