DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2017.v05i02.071

Pages: 662-667

There are different methods of measuring blood pressure. Palpatory method is one of the most commonly used methods of measuring blood pressure. But one measures only systolic BP using this method. Measurement of diastolic blood pressure is mentioned in literature though not used commonly. Hence we decided to assess whether palpatory method is accurate for measuring diastolic blood pressure as compared to auscultatory method of measurement of BP. We have included 200 patients in our study. Systolic and diastolic blood pressures was measured first by palpatory method by one of the investigators. Then it was measured by auscultatory method by an investigator who was blinded to the previously measured value. We found that DBP recordings matched exactly in 153 patients, and were accurate in 27 patients, acceptable in 11 and unacceptable in 2 patients. We couldn’t measure diastolic BP in 7 patients Palpatory method may be useful while measuring BP in noisy environment where hearing Korotkoff sounds may be difficult, like in mass disaster.