Measuring blood pressure is a common occurrence in doctors’ offices. Blood pressure that is too high (hypertension) can increase the risk of serious health conditions, and pressure that is too low (hypotension) can cause light-headedness and fainting. Previous studies have shown that blood pressure readings can vary depending on where on the body the measurement is taken from, and can even be different in each arm. However, new findings published in the journal Hypertension suggest that this variance could have major implications.
The study was conducted by the Inter-arm Blood Pressure Difference - Individual Participant Data (INTERPRESS-IPD) Collaboration and led by the University of Exeter. They analyzed data from 24 studies where blood pressure in both arms was measured. The studies were conducted internationally, with 14 from Western Europe, 7 from the US, 2 from East Asia, and 1 from Sub-Saharan Africa. Data was collected from 53,827 participants whose deaths, heart attacks,