Development and validation of a decision support tool for the ...
bp patient :: Article Creator When Getting Blood Pressure Taken At Doctor's Office, How You Sit Matters Millions of people with normal blood pressure might be misclassified as having blood pressure that is too high because of improper positioning when measurements are taken, new research suggests. Guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology call for a person to be seated in a chair with feet flat on the floor, back supported and the arm wearing the blood pressure cuff supported at heart level. Doing so helps ensure an accurate reading. But many health care professionals take blood pressure measurements while the patient is seated on an examining table, leaving legs dangling and back and arm unsupported. "That's not conducive to taking blood pressure accurately," said Dr. Randy Wexler, a primary care physician at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus who was a...