Estimation of the Diastolic Arterial Blood Pressure by Palpation of the Brachial Artery

摘要

The fact that the palpatory method of indirect measurement of blood pressure can be used to estimate the diastolic arterial pressure is apparently not widely known. By using an apparatus which simultaneously inflates and deflates two blood pressure cuffs, 152 comparisons of the auscultatory and palpatory methods of estimating systolic and diastolic arterial pressures were made in both normotensive and hypertensive subjects. Correlation coefficients were found to be .91 for the systolic comparisons and .86 for the diastolic comparisons. Auscultatory values were higher than or equal to palpatory values in 71% of the systolic comparisons, but in only 50% of the diastolic comparisons. The palpatory method of estimating diastolic pressure is not accurate enough for use in situations where precise measurements are necessary, but may be used in several clinical situations and as a part of instruction in physical diagnosis. (Author)