It is a device used to calculate the body’s blood pressure. It is been tested and proven to make a precise measure of one’s blood pressure because it is considered as a precision material. This tool consists of a cuff that is inflatable, a manometer which serves as a gauging unit and a apparatus for inflation which might be a manually operated bulb and valve or via using a medical pump that is more often than not operated manually or automatically. This tool is made available to you through going to clinic, hospitals or even in your own home as long as you know how to properly use it.
How to use it
• The person or the patient in whom the sphygmomanometer will be used must be in calm down
mode. The patient may be sitting comfortably laying his or her back on the backrest of the seat
or he or she may be lying at ease in a bed. It is to make sure that the patient is having normal
rate of blood pressure before using the sphygmomanometer.
• The person should not be fresh from any strenuous activity like jogging or walking before taking
his or her blood pressure because it may affect to the reading of the sphygmomanometer.
Similarly, if the patient had been involved in an exercise or any activity prior to the taking of his
or her blood pressure, he or she should be allowed to rest first or relax in order to cool down in
order to make his or her blood pressure stable.
• The test should be made not right after a recent meal as it may affect the reading. The arms
should be at the heart level so that the reading should be exact. Also, the arms should be
allowed to flex back and forth in order to get it more relax and less tense. Likewise, the arms
should be free from any tight things like bracelets, watches, ponytails, rings and rubber bands
because it may disrupt the blood flow.
• The person or the practitioner using the said device should first detect the clearest sign of heart
beat of the patient on his arm. After locating it, he or she may now put the apparatus on the
patient arm.
• The practitioner should wrap the upper arm with the available cuff and take note of the time and
then listen to beat of the heart with the aid of a stethoscope. It is usually placed within the cuff
wrapped in the upper part of the arm, and then the practitioner gradually releases the force in
the cuff by means of the valve. As the pressure in the cuffs decreases, a “whooshing” resonance
is heard, this means that the blood run starts once more in the artery walls. The pressure at
which the first pounding sound began is noted as the systolic blood pressure while when there
exists a disappearance of the sound afterwards, it will create the so-called diastolic blood. You
can now record your blood pressure by combining these two.