Agreement of blood pressure measurements between random-zero and standard mercury sphygmomanometers

The random-zero sphygmomanometer has been widely used in observational studies and clinical trials for blood pressure measurement. We examined the agreement of blood pressure measurements between random-zero and standard mercury sphygmomanometers among 2007 Chinese study participants aged 15 to 60 years. Three blood pressure readings were obtained by trained observers using random-zero and standard mercury sphygmomanometers, respectively, in a random order. Overall, blood pressure readings obtained using the random-zero device were significantly lower than those obtained with the standard mercury sphygmomanometer, with a mean difference ranging from -3.0 to -2.7 mm Hg for systolic and -1.4 to -0.9 mm Hg for diastolic blood pressure (all P < 0.01). Correlation coefficients between mean blood pressure measurements obtained using the random-zero and standard mercury sphygmomanometers were high (0.90 for systolic and 0.85 for diastolic blood pressure, both P < 0.0001). In conclusion, our study indicated that there was strong agreement between blood pressure measurements obtained using the random-zero and standard mercury sphygmomanometers although blood pressure values were on average lower with the random-zero sphygmomanometer.