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Sphygmomanometers--an audit in general practice
Nayankumar C Shah1, David W Sibbritt, Susan Heaney
1Discipline of General Practice, Faculty of Health, The University of Newcastle, New South Wales. nayankumar.shah@newcastle.edu.au
Background:
The accuracy of sphygmomanometers used in Australian general practice is unknown but potentially important.
Method:
We measured the accuracy of sphygmomanometers in general practice in the Hunter region of New South Wales using a gold standard. Practices were recruited by an advertisement in the division newsletter.
Results:
Sixty practices (35%) volunteered. A total of 404 instruments were checked. Over 95% of sphygmomanometers were within 4 mmHg of gold standard sphygmomanometer across the clinical pressure range. Mercury sphygmomanometers were more accurate than aneroid (p<0.01). There was no significant association between accuracy and age, calibration, or visual inspection of the instruments.
Discussion:
This study demonstrated a high accuracy rate of the sphygmomanometers checked, especially those sphygmomanometers that were mercury.
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