{"id":4731,"date":"2020-02-19T11:50:44","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T11:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mymedicplus.com\/news\/?p=4731"},"modified":"2021-03-31T00:39:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T19:09:11","slug":"are-health-professionals-taking-your-blood-pressure-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedicplus.com\/blog\/are-health-professionals-taking-your-blood-pressure-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"Are health professionals taking your blood pressure wrong?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Debbie Malewicki has never been shy about advocating for her own health.<\/p>\n

So when the 48-year-old Monroe resident was told that her blood pressure was high enough that she needed to go on medication \u2014 after years of having blood pressure that was on \u201cthe low end of normal\u201d \u2014 she spoke up. Malewicki was already being treated for adult onset asthma, and was still taking some medication for breast cancer.<\/p>\n

Malewicki doesn\u2019t know for sure why there was such a wide variance in her blood pressure readings, although she attributes it at least partly to the fact that her office had been using an automated blood pressure machine, instead of taking it \u201cthe old-fashioned way\u201d with a manual blood pressure cuff.<\/p>\n

However, she\u2019s not the only one who has faced widely different pressure readings on different visits. Doctors said getting an incorrect high blood pressure reading is fairly common, and is often caused by missteps the average patient might not even notice.<\/p>\n

For instance, talking to a patient while taking blood pressure, taking blood pressure through clothing and having a patient sit on an exam table with their feet dangling can all lead to artificially high blood pressure readings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019ve had a patient walk down the hallway, climb onto the table and immediately have their blood pressure taken,\u201d said Dr. Craig Serin, senior medical director of Western Connecticut Medical Group, and is based in Wilton. \u201cThen I\u2019ve come in 10 to 15 minutes, after I\u2019ve had them sit with their feet on the floor for a while, and taken it again, and seen the blood pressure go down 30 to 40 points.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some cases, a mistake can theoretically lead to a patient being unnecessarily put on blood pressure medication, said Dr. Jeffrey Berman, chairman of cardiology at St. Vincent\u2019s Medical Center in Bridgeport.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you overtreat blood pressure, you can have blood pressure that\u2019s too low.\u201d<\/p>\n

That can lead to dizziness, falls and injuries, Berman said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou want to make sure you\u2019re treating the right people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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