Are Wrist Blood Pressure Monitors As Accurate As Traditional Arm Monitors?

Posted on Tue, 18 Apr 2017

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Tue, 18 Apr 2017 Answered on

Wed, 10 May 2017 Last reviewed on

Question : I have access to many different blood pressure measuring devices (mostly Omron models). There are two different types - one that takes measurements at the wrist, the other at the upper arm. The measurements taken at the wrist are consistently 10-12 points lower on systolic and 6-8 points lower on diastolic. I've used 4 different wrist models and 3 different upper arm models... all are pretty much the same, so that should rule out a defective device.

My question: Is there a reason why my BP would be lower at the wrist than the upper arm?

Answered by Dr. Rishu Saxena (-4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Wrist is supplied by radial artery a branch of brachial artery in arm.

Detailed Answer:
Hi Dear,
Thank you for asking your query on HealthcareMagic.

I have gone through your details and i appreciate your concern.

As per you query answer are-
Pressure in brachial artery is always more then radial artery.
Blood from heart is pumped directly into aorta which branches off into brachial artery in shoulder area which further splits into radial artery in arm.
As brachial artery comes first pressure is a bit higher then Radial artery.Its natural phenomenon and a pressure difference of 10-15mm of hg will always be there.

In case you need more details feel free to ask.
Thanks.

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad