Mercury versus Oscillometric Device in Measuring Blood Pressure in Elderly: Which Is Authentic?

Aim: To compare the systolic and diastolic blood pressure in both arms in elderly patients by mercury sphygmomanometer and oscillometric recorders adopting standard practice of measuring blood pressure.Materials and methods: It is a cross sectional study done in 204 elderly patients aged more than 60 years over a period of two months at teaching hospital, Jaffna, Sri Lanka.Blood pressure was measured in both arms by both devices adopting the standard practice of blood pressure measurements.Results: The mean Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP) by oscillometric recorder on both right and left arm was 4.18mmHg and 3.66 mmHg higher than mercury sphygmomanometer readings.The mean Diastolic Blood Pressure (DBP) by oscillometric recorder on both right arm and left arm was 1.67 and 1.64 mmHg lower than mercury sphygmomanometer readings.There wasn't any significant difference in inter arm blood pressure measurement.The study group consisted of 54.3% males and 45.7% of females.The mean age of the study group was 69.46 years.Conclusion: Though there is no much difference observed in the gross values in reading the blood pressure by both oscillometric recorders and mercury sphygmomanometers, there is statistically significant discrepancy in blood pressure readings particularly in the elderly population which needs to be studied further in detail.