Copyright 2006 Harvard Health Publications
What are the possible reasons for a person having a different blood pressure reading depending on which arm is used?
If you have a blockage in the arteries supplying one arm, the blood pressure reading that is obtained from that arm will be lower. In older people, blockages are usually due to atherosclerosis. In younger people, they are often due to muscles or other structures compressing the artery from the outside, or an abnormality of the blood vessels themselves.
Physicians ought to measure blood pressure in both arms at least once in a patient's life, to screen for this kind of problem.
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Source: from the Harvard Health Publications Family Health Guide, Copyright © 2007 by President and Fellows of Harvard College. All rights reserved.
Used with permission of StayWell.
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