Asking the Patient or Measuring Blood Pressure in the Emergency Department: Which One is Best?

Blood pressure (BP) is obtained at the emergency department (ED) in the vast majority of patients; irrespective of chief complaint, and elevated BP, above the threshold for hypertension, is a common observation. In this review, we address the predictive value of measured BP in the ED compared to that of a history of hypertension in patients with chief complaints related to cardiovascular disease. In chest pain patients, a high BP at the ED is associated to a good prognosis, whereas the history of hypertension is associated to a poor prognosis. In heart failure, a high admission BP is consistently linked to a good prognosis, whereas the clinical value of history of hypertension in the ED is unknown. In stroke, there is a U-shaped relation between admission BP and outcome. A history of hypertension is common among stroke patients but does not seem to provide any predictive value in the ED.