eHow launches Android app: Get the best of eHow on the go.
If you have high cholesterol or are on the borderline, you may want to try to lower it before you have a m… More
Your eyes are precious, and regular annual eye exams should be a standard part of your health practices. E… More
Unlike adults, children may not understand that a strange man or woman who pokes and prods them is doing i… More
During an eye exam, visual acuity is checked, the external features of the eye are examined, muscle balanc… More
When heading to a dental checkup, expect the doctor to take x-rays, conduct an oral exam and perform a cle… More
A PAP smear is a screening test for cervical cancer that can be performed by a primary care physician, hea… More
Pap tests, often called pap smears, are part of a regular pelvic exam performed by a gynecologist. Women a… More
A pap smear is a test used to discover irregular cells on the cervix. Although this is routine test, there… More
Learn what to expect when you schedule a screening for prostate cancer with expert prostate health tips in… More
How to prepare for a testicular cancer exam in this free men's health video.… More
Learn the benefits of performing a monthly breast exam in this free home health video series.… More
If your doctor suspects that you may have an infection or an illness that needs to be confirmed through bl… More
The hormone that determines if a woman is pregnant or not can be detected in the blood six to eight days a… More
Before a triglycerides blood test, a person should fast for 12 hours by not eating or drinking foods or dr… More
In order to check blood pressure, make sure the person is relaxed and at rest, and then use a sphygmomanom… More
Summary: In order to check blood pressure, make sure the person is relaxed and at rest, and then use a sphygmomanometer to pump up the cuff, stopping the flow of blood in the arm. Find out how to measure blood pressure from the point that blood starts flowing until the cuff releases the pressure with help from a physician's assistant in this free video on blood pressure.
Al Hedgepeth is an alumnus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned his degree as a P.A. in 1980. He currently works as a gynecological P.A. for Wake County....read more
"Question is, how do you check a blood pressure? You want the person to be relaxed and at rest when you check their blood pressure. If they just hustled in to your office or into where you are from a parking lot then you don't want to check it immediately, you want to give them ten, fifteen minutes to relax and calm down because your heart speeds up, your pressure goes up as a result of any physical exertion. So, you want first relaxed and calm to do it. If you get initial reading that's elevated, it behooves you to check another one ten to fifteen minutes later to make sure that it has come down or that it's stable and not going up. A lot of times in the medical profession we refer to the white coat effect. Patients come in and they're nervous for being at the doctor's office and they see the white coat and their blood pressure goes up so we wait ten or fifteen, twenty minutes talk to 'em, relax 'em, get things off their mind and make them comfortable and then recheck and usually it has come down within ten to fifteen minutes. The blood pressure is measured by use of an air bladder that goes around your arm snuggly and then it has a sphygmometer which is a pressure, air pressure monitoring gauge that is calibrated to millimeters of mercury and you pump up the blood pressure cuff or bladder, air bladder to actually stop the flow of blood in the arm and then you slowly release the air pressure off by listening to the blood flow in an artery in the arm and the measures you get are when the blood flow starts which is the systolic or higher part of the blood pressure and then you get a diastolic reading which is the low part of the reading and that's when the blood pressure cuff has completely let go of the pressure on the vessel and so you get the baseline pressure of the blood in the blood vessel itself."
Copyright © 1999-2009 eHow, Inc. Use of this web site constitutes acceptance of the eHow Terms of Use † and Privacy Policy †. en-US Portions of this page are modifications based on work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. † requires javascript
