Skipping pre-reading rest could make for more efficient BP screening

Reuters Health - 10/09/2020 - Shortening or even eliminating the five-minute rest time before initiating a blood pressure (BP) reading could make BP screening more efficient, particularly in low-resource settings, new findings suggest. For adults with systolic BP readings below 140 mmHg, measurements taken after a two-minute rest or with no rest period were non-inferior to readings taken after a five-minute rest, Dr. Tammy McLoughlin Brady and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, found. The results were presented at the American Heart Association's virtual Hypertension 2020 Scientific Sessions. American Heart Association guidelines recommend that patients rest for at least five minutes before BP measurement is initiated. "There's been some studies to show that this is not really adhered to perfectly," Dr. Brady told Reuters Health by phone. "A lot of people aren't necessarily doing that in clinical practice."...

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Posted on 10 September, 202016 September, 2020