This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

A Case for Automatic Recorders?

Khin Mae Hla, MD; Kathryn A. Vokaty; John R. Feussner, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1986;146(12):2373-2376.

Abstract
• Measurement of systolic blood pressure (BP) in the elderly can be inaccurate due to observer errors such as terminal digit preference and expectation bias. Efforts to reduce these errors include use of trained observers, random-zero sphygmomanometers, and automatic BP recorders. To evaluate the value of an infrasonic recorder, the Infrasonde, we compared simultaneous systolic BP determinations obtained directly by intraarterial measurements, and indirectly by a standard cuffmercury sphygmomanometer using clinic nurses (casual and serial measurements), a trained physician assistant (PA), and the Infrasonde in 36 elderly hypertensive men. All the indirect measurements correlated positively with the direct measurement. A terminal digit preference for zero occurred more frequently in the casual and serial readings compared with the Infrasonde and PA cuff readings: 45% and 51% vs 21% and 22%, respectively. Our data suggest that the Infrasonde is a reliable, alternative device for systolic BP measurement that eliminates observer biases associated

Author Affiliations
From the Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Duke University Medical Center (Drs Hla and Feussner); the Ambulatory Care Service (Drs Hla and Feussner and Ms Vokaty), and the Health Services Research Field Program (Drs Hla and Feussner), Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center, Durham, NC.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication March 18, 1986.

Reprint requests to Ambulatory Care Service (11C), Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center, 508 Fulton St, Durham, NC 27705 (Dr Hla).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Does This Patient Have Hypertension? How to Measure Blood Pressure
Reeves
JAMA 1995;273:1211-1218.
ABSTRACT  

Screening for Pseudohypertension: A Quantitative, Noninvasive Approach
Hla and Feussner
Arch Intern Med 1988;148:673-676.
ABSTRACT