Digital Sphygmomanometer Blood Pressure Results Are Accurate

Blood pressure is measured with a sphygmomanometer. The gold standard is the mercury sphygmomanometer. The others are aneroid and digital sphygmomanometer. The accuracy of each type depends on the manufacturer and environmental factors. They have their individual advantages and disadvantages.

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Mercury Sphygmomanometer

They show blood pressure by pushing mercury up an inverted column equivalent to the pressure of the cuff. A wall mounted mercury sphygmomanometer is called Baumanometer.

Aneroid Sphygmomanometer

This uses a mechanic dials. They are as accurate as mercury sphygmomanometer but require calibration checks. This is because the spring inside may get weak called mechanical jarring. Aneroids mounted on walls or stands are not susceptible to this problem.

Digital Sphygmomanometer

Digital sphygmomanometer

They employ oscillating measurement and electronic calculation. They use inflation and detect diastolic and systolic pressure by either deformable membranes that are measured using differential capacitance or piezoresistance and they include microprocessor.

It is generally agreed that mercury sphygmomanometer is the gold standard in clinical setting. The most accurate method is an invasive technique that is not easy to carry out. So any other device must be close to the mercury sphygmomanometer. There is a general believe that aneroid and digital are far from close. However, digital have suffered more from this bias observation. The reason is because it is difficult to carry out a research that is completely accurate.

Most people who complain on the variation of both devices fail to put some factors into consideration. Some will take the reading of a person with a mercury sphygmomanometer now and use the digital immediately. They expect both reading to be same. That is not possible because each reading add pressure to the blood. The next reading will obviously be different even if the second reading was carried out with the same device immediately.

Now if the reading was taken at some minutes interval, the result cannot be the same too. This is because if the person rested for 10 minutes before the first reading, adding another 20 minutes for the second reading have added more time for rest.

One thing is that it is not necessary to measure blood pressure to the very value. That is why it is more convenient to say a blood pressure is 120/80 mmhg than saying the result is 122/81. The little difference does not affect the choice of treatment. So when a mercury sphygmomanometer is used to measure the blood pressure of a person, the value of the digital version may not give the same value because they give result to the exact value.

Amateur cannot use mercury sphygmomanometer to get correct reading. Their only option is the use of the digital. However, healthcare providers can choose between mercury or digital sphygmomanometer based on circumstances. Digital can be use even in noisy places which make it good for healthcare providers.

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Technology have really improve life expectancy. However, adoption of technology in health is not impressive. That is because healthcare providers are always skeptical about the benefits as well as the risk in adopting technology. Digital sphygmomanometer should be encouraged and adopted by healthcare providers.

I have tried using mercury and digital sphygmomanometer on some patients. Comparing the results after allowing a rest showed that the difference in result is not significant to condemn digital sphygmomanometer. The only time digital must be diss for mercury sphygmomanometer is when the patient has arteriosclerosis, arrhythmia, preeclampsia, pulsus alternans and pulsus paradoxus as their reading may not be correct. This is because the mechanism of digital sphygmomanometer will be affected by those conditions.

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