What should your arm position be if you’re having your blood pressure measured? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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Turns out when you get your blood pressure measured, arm position is critical. That’s according to a study led by Tammy Brady, a cardiovascular health promotion expert at Johns Hopkins, who showed that suboptimal arm positions increase the top number in a blood pressure reading by about 4 points, and that can cause someone to be diagnosed with high blood pressure.

Brady: Not all of those positions and preparatory steps have been rigorously studied and so we were really interested to know how important arm position was on blood pressure measurement accuracy. Specifically the guidelines say that your arm is supposed to be resting on a desk or a table or to your side in such a way that the middle of the cuff is at mid heart level. Not all providers or even patients adhere to that recommendation. :24

Brady notes that if you notice your arm isn’t being properly positioned it should be brought to your provider’s attention, especially if your reading is high. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.