To measure blood pressure, your doctor uses an instrument call a
"sphygmomanometer," more often referred to as a blood pressure
cuff. The cuff is wrapped around your upper arm and inflated to
stop the flow of blood in your artery. As the cuff is slowly
deflated, your doctor uses a stethoscope to listen to the blood
pumping through the artery. These pumping sounds register on a
gauge attached to the cuff. The first pumping sound your doctor
hears is recorded as the systolic pressure, and the last sound is
the diastolic pressure.
Review Date: 07/29/2010
Reviewed By: A.D.A.M. Editorial Team: David Zieve, MD, MHA, and David R. Eltz.
Previously reviewed by David C. Dugdale, III, MD, Professor of
Medicine, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine,
University of Washington School of Medicine (5/26/2010).
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
