Errors occurring during blood pressure monitoring

Blood pressure monitoring can be prone to errors, including either falsely low or falsely high readings.

Factors contributing to false readings include patient or healthcare professional mistakes,  equipment or technical malfunctions, and procedural errors.

Patient-related false-high readings in blood pressure monitoring include meal ingestion, caffeine consumption, smoking before the procedure, or a patient's physical or emotional stress.

Healthcare professionals may make blood pressure monitoring errors due to hearing impairments, negligence, or lack of knowledge.

Equipment-related factors include using equipment with cracked tubing, using an excessively wide cuff, which can lead to false-low readings, or using a narrow or short cuff, which can lead to false-high readings.

Whereas, using a manometer not calibrated at zero can result in falsely high readings.

Procedure-related false low readings can result from improper arm positioning, releasing the valve rapidly, or misplacing the diaphragm.

On the other hand, false high readings can be caused by having the arm unsupported and below heart level or releasing the valve too slowly.