Inaccuracies introduced by single width blood pressure cuffs

Blood pressure cuff dimensions directly affect accuracy of blood pressure measurements. For accurate blood pressure measurements, the width of the cuff must be proportional to arm circumference. A cuff that is too narrow results in falsely high blood pressure values, and a cuff that is too wide results in falsely low values. Some blood pressure standards permit a single width cuff regardless of arm circumference. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether 12 cm single width cuffs currently permitted by the British Hypertension Society (BHS) standard are sufficiently accurate to pass the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), BHS, and European Society of Hypertension (ESH) International Protocol (IP1) Working Group standards for accuracy. Each of 101 subjects was tested sequentially with both a single and a proportional width cuff in random order. Auscultatory blood pressure was determined by 2 observers using a double binaural stethoscope. Accuracy was determined by comparing the resulting differences with the AAMI, BHS, and IP1 standards for accuracy. The single width blood pressure cuff failed the AAMI accuracy standards for both systolic blood pressure on large arms and diastolic blood pressure on small and large arms, and overall. The single width cuffs, also, failed the BHS accuracy standards for diastolic BP. In conclusion, these single width cuffs could result in a significant number of people being misdiagnosed and mistreated for hypertension. Therefore, to avoid 'cuff hypertension' and 'cuff hypotension', the cuff width should be proportional to arm circumference.