One of the most common ways of measuring blood pressure level is with the use of a Sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope. I bet you have already seen on in a clinic or even in a hospital when you were checked up by a doctor. Using a Sphyg, this is a way to check blood pressure with cuffs. This is very helpful especially when you are at home. Heard about “white coat hypertension”? This is the one that you would never want to experience yourself or experienced by your loved ones.
This kind of hypertension happens or a state of anxiety which eventually causes their
blood pressure to skyrocket as soon as they experienced something dreadful or had
heard very disappointing or hurtful news.
Hypertension leading to heart attacks is a very dreadful one because it can take away our lives or that of
our loved ones in just a single moment. So as early as possible, we need to monitor our blood pressure
The first thing that you need to do to check blood pressure with cuffs is to have yourself ready
and the equipment. Make sure that the equipment is working well and accurately. You need to sit
down and lay down your blood pressure testing equipment on the table. Normally the whole set will
include the cuff, stethoscope, bulb, and pressure gauge. Arms should be raised leveling them to the
heart making sure that elbow is parallel to the heart. This will eventually ensure that you will not get an
overestimated or underestimated reading of your current blood pressure level.
You need someone to do the reading. He should wrap the cuff around the upper arm. There is
a Velcro in which most cuffs have which makes securing the cuff in place much easier. There has been
a question as to which arm to use. To answer that, normally it is the left one, but there are some who
says it should be the right or both like when you are right-handed, it should be the left arm and vice
versa. You need to make sure that the cuff is snug, but it should not be too tight. What will happen if
the cuff is loose? This will not cut off the artery properly and will give you an incorrect and inaccurate
low reading. Just imagine the kind of nervousness or shock you could give to a patient just because of
incorrect reading. On the other hand, if the cuff is too tight, a “cuff hypertension” can give you a very
You can just ever imagine how important cuffs are when it comes to check blood pressure
with cuffs. How tight or loose you had worn the cuffs, it could affect the correctness and accuracy of
the reading. When the cuffs are correctly placed, you are good to go. You can now have a stethoscope
placed beneath the cuff positioned over the brachial artery. You can place now the ends of the stethoscope
to your ears, pump, listen, and have an accurate reading of your blood pressure level.