Difference in blood pressure between arms might reflect peripheral vascular disease

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7309.399

BMJ 2001;323:399 ( 18 August )

Letters

Difference in blood pressure between arms might reflect peripheral vascular disease

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ I believe that McAlister and Straus underestimate the frequency and significance of a blood pressure difference betweenthe arms.¹ They quote 6% from the paper by Harrison et al,but this group reported a difference in 10/131 (that is, 7.6%)normotensive subjects for systolic or diastolic differences, 44/310hypertensive patients (14%) for a systolic difference, and 31/310hypertensive patients (10%) for a diastolic difference.²

I have reviewed the English language literature and identified 11 studies with comparable data on at least 100 subjects. Thesestudies (table) reported prevalences ranging from 12% to 18.4%for a systolic difference $>=$ 20 mm Hg and 13% to 33.7% for a diastolicdifference $>=$ 10 mm Hg in selected populations. No publicationswere identified from primary care.

Table Removed (Available Only in the Full Text)

I have been prospectively gathering pairs of readings from hypertensive patients. To date I have collected 435 pairs of recordingsfrom 205 patients. The mean absolute systolic difference is $>=$ 10mm . . . [Full text of this article]

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