Question

a.) Why is blood pressure usually measured at an arm? b.) Suppose the pressure reading were taken on the calf or leg of a standing person. Would there be a difference, in principle? Explain.

Answer 1

(a)The reason for the measuring the blood pressure at an arm is as follows: The height of the arm is same as the height of the heart. Since blood pressure depends on the height. It increases along with the depth. Due to this reason, generally we measure the blood pressure at the arm.

(b)If we measure the blood pressure at the calf or leg, then it would be larger than the blood pressure measured at the arm. The reason for the reason for that the blood at calf is deeper than the blood at arm.

When the blood pressure at the calf is used as slandered, then we made adjustment for the height of the person. This is because of the blood pressure would be have a different value when the person is lying down.