Accuracy Assessment of Measured Blood Pressures in Three Departments of one Tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Background: Auscultatory methods with a mercury sphygmomanometer had been approved as BP measurement method. Decline in accuracy of BP measurement might lead to pitfalls in diagnosis and management of patients. Objectives: Present study was performed for assessment differences between standard and routine measurement of blood pressure in study wards. Materials and Methods: Present clinical survey was performed for assessment quality and accuracy of sphygmomanometers which had been used in three main wards of a tertiary educational hospital. Blood pressure of patients which measured by trained clinical resident with new calibrated sphygmomanometers was considered as standard values of systolic and diastolic blood pressures and compared with recorded blood pressures in the check list of patients hospital beds. Results: In the clinical survey 86 patients were included into the study. Correlation coefficient between two measurements was 0.82 and 0.59 in systolic and diastolic blood pressure (P = 0.00). Mean and standard deviation of differences between standard and routine systolic and diastolic blood pressures had significant differences (7.62 ± 12.69 and 6.39 ± 11.55 mmhg; P = 0.00). Conclusions: One of the possible causes of difference between routine and standard measured blood pressures in the present study was lack of calibration in a sphygmomanometer and this defect was also the easier problem to correct by change of damaged portions. Findings of our study showed that physicians did not reliance only to routine blood pressure measurements for clinical decision making about patients due to several confounding variables that had impact on measurements.